‘I will kill u bruh.’ Manatee deputies arrest 3 more students after school threats
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office has arrested three more students after a string of school threats made on social media.
Deputies arrested an 11-year-old student at Buffalo Creek Middle School in Palmetto and two 14-year-old students at Lakewood Ranch Preparatory School, the agency said. The arrests come less than a week after deputies arrested a 15-year-old Bayshore High School student accused of making school shooting threats on Snapchat.
The sheriff’s office charged all three students with making written threats to kill, a second-degree felony.
“Be ready for tomorrow, I will kill u bruh,” the sixth grader from Buffalo Creek Middle School wrote on an instant messaging app on Tuesday, according to the sheriff’s office.
After school administrators became aware of the threat, deputies say they confronted the 11-year-old the next day at school and searched her belongings. No firearms or weapons were found, but deputies say she admitted to making the threat.
“Students must understand the seriousness of making threats about school violence,” Sheriff Rick Wells said in a written statement. “Make no mistake about it, if we have evidence that a student made a threat to kill, we arrest them and take them to the Juvenile Detention Center. I encourage parents to remind their children of the consequences of making school threats.”
Two Lakewood Ranch students arrested
Two students at Lakewood Ranch Preparatory School are also in custody for making written threats about a school shooting, according to the sheriff’’s office.
On Tuesday, detectives say they began investigating a Snapchat message about an alleged fight in the school gym that read: “I’m shooting up the school at 9:00.”
Deputies arrived at the school Wednesday morning to provide extra security and search for the origin of the message.
One 14-year-old student admitted to writing the Snapchat message, the sheriff’s office said. Another told deputies he had also written a post about killing classmates, the sheriff’s office said. Both students were arrested.
