SHALIMAR, Fla., Feb. 21, 2018–A middle school student in Fort Walton Beach was charged with making a threat to kill or do bodily harm Tuesday according to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office.
The 13-year-odd Pryor Middle School student posted, “I wanna shoot a school” on Snapchat, a social media site popular with school-aged children and younger adults.
The teen said he was just trying to play a “joke,” did not have any specific school in mind and did not mean anything by it.
The image sent on Snapchat consisted of a photo of an M-4 assault rifle with the words, “I would kill people, I wanna shoot a school and round 2 of Florida.”
The defendant says he copied the picture of the weapon from Google images.
The Snapchat post was reportedly sent as a group post, but one of the receivers reported it.
The teen is the third student arrested by the OCSO since October in connection with posting threats in reference to a school shooting.
Although the senders have said they were only joking, the OCSO has a zero tolerance policy towards posts threatening school violence.
Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office release
