Police in the US state of Florida arrested an 18-year-old after receiving information that threatened on social media with carrying out a school shooting.
In a photograph posted online, Corey Anderson appeared with a pistol, a rifle and a tactical vestin addition to the message: “Hey Siri, direction to the nearest school,” Hillsborough County Police Chief Chad Chronister said in a press release.
Anderson was arrested Sunday at his home near Tampa, accused of making a threat written or electronic about carrying out a shooting or an act of terrorism.
Anderson was booked into prison and later released on bail, records show. According to the police statement, the agents discovered that the weapons in the photograph andcompressed air rail.
The arrest came less than a week after another 18-year-old, Salvador Ramos, entered an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where he murdered 19 children and two teachers.
Anderson’s post is similar to what Ramos did on May 24, when he recounted on networks the steps he took in his bloody raid until he attacked Robb Elementary School.
About half an hour before the shooting, Ramos wrote a private message on the social network Facebook saying that he was going to shoot his grandmother, and a few minutes later he posted another in which he warned that he had already attacked her. The woman received a bullet in her face, but she managed to survive.
And in a third message, published a quarter of an hour before the massacre, he indicated that he was preparing to attack a school.
In the end, the assailant was killed by authorities about 80 minutes after he entered the school in a mostly Latino farming community that lies between San Antonio and the Mexican border.
“These kinds of threats are unacceptable. The man intentionally instilled fear in our community as a sick joke. But let’s be clear: this is no laughing matter,” Chronister stated in his statement.
Police Chief Chronister said his department “will do everything in our power” to track down anyone who threatens schools.
The official said that protecting students is his “top priority.” “We take threats to schools very seriously. If you see anything suspicious, please contact us immediately,” he added.
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