Police in Florida have arrested a 10-year-old boy for allegedly threatening a mass shooting at his elementary school.
According to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, the fifth-grader at Patriot Elementary School in Cape Coral shared a threatening text message with another student.
“This student’s behavior is sickening, especially after the recent tragedy in Uvalde, Texas,” Sheriff Carmine Marceno said in a Facebook post, referencing last week’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 21 people — 19 children and two teachers — dead.
“Making sure our children are safe is paramount. We will have law and order in our schools! My team didn’t hesitate one second…NOT ONE SECOND, to investigate this threat.”
A video posted to the sheriff’s Facebook page shows the boy being put into the back of a police vehicle by an officer. Global News is not identifying the child, because of his age.
“Right now is not the time to act like a little delinquent. It’s not funny. This child made a fake threat, and now he’s experiencing real consequences,” stated Marceno.
President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden travelled to Uvalde over the weekend to meet with families affected by the mass shooting at the Texas elementary school.
It was Biden’s second trip in as many weeks to comfort a community in mourning after staggering loss. On May 17, he was in Buffalo, N.Y., to meet with victims’ families and condemn white supremacy after a shooter espousing the racist “replacement theory” killed 10 Black people at a supermarket.
The shootings in Texas and New York and their aftermath have put a spotlight on the nation’s entrenched divisions and its inability to forge consensus on actions to reduce gun violence.
The Bidens’ visit to Uvalde comes amid mounting scrutiny of the police response to the shooting. Officials revealed Friday that students and teachers repeatedly begged 911 operators for help even as a police commander told more than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. Officials said the commander believed that the suspect was barricaded inside an adjoining classroom and that there was no longer an active attack.
The revelation prompted fresh anguish and questions about whether more lives were lost because officers did not act faster to stop the gunman, who was ultimately killed by Border Patrol tactical officers.
— with files from The Associated Press
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