The Port St. Lucie Police Department (PSLPD) has arrested a teenager in an investigation into online threats made against a school.
On September 16, at approximately 10:30 p.m., PSLPD responded to a residence in Port St. Lucie regarding online threats made from an unknown Instagram account to another minor, where the suspect threatened to shoot the victim.
The preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect created an Instagram account to spread rumors about the victim, as well as other rumors related to St. Lucie West K-8 School, located at 1501 SW Cashmere Blvd.
The suspect’s Instagram account was managed by the suspect, who attends St. Lucie West K-8 along with the victim.
The suspect created the account after he and the victim had a fight over the summer. The victim sent direct messages to the Instagram account, unaware of the suspect’s identity at the time, and asked the account holder to stop spreading the online rumors, but the suspect refused.
Instead, the suspect directly threatened the victim in these messages, as well as St. Lucie West K-8, and included photos of firearms. Some verbatim quotes from the messages were:
- “762 in your house and skl”
- “Ak 47 ar and everything”
- “I know you hear the lockdown drill”
- “Don’t hide”
- “I’ll find you, family”
- “You gotta go”
- “Wait for October 14”
As part of the preliminary investigation, officers also notified School Security and informed them of the specific threats, and additional officers were deployed to the school that morning.
As the investigation continued on the morning of September 17, detectives issued emergency court orders to Meta, the parent company of Instagram, which returned with subscriber information that helped identify the 12-year-old suspect.
With the assistance of St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office School Resource Officers and School Security, detectives went to St. Lucie West K-8 School, where the suspect was located and taken into custody without incident.
The suspect’s cell phone was located, and it was confirmed that it had the number associated with the Instagram account from which the threats were made.
The phone was seized for further forensic examination.
The investigation revealed that the threats were a joke and that the photos of firearms were taken from other social media platforms. The suspect had no access to firearms, nor did his parents.
The suspect was charged with one count of FSS 836.10: Written threats to kill, do bodily injury, or commit an act of terrorism. He was subsequently transferred to the Department of Juvenile Justice.
