Roseville high school student arrested in ‘swatting’ incident that led to campus lockdown
Officers arrested a 15-year-old student responsible for online threats toward a Roseville high school in an alleged “swatting” incident that prompted a campus lockdown on Thursday, police said.
The campus lockdown occurred at West Park High School. The teen arrested was a student at the high school and was booked at Placer County Juvenile Hall, said Lt. Chris Ciampa, a Roseville Police Department spokesman.
Ciampa declined to say whether the student arrested was a boy or a girl. He said the student was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats.
The phony threats were made Thursday morning on social media, alleging violence would occur at the high school at 12:30 p.m. Authorities were informed of the social media threats. Police officers increased their presence on the campus, and the school was placed on a precautionary lockdown.
About 1 p.m. Thursday, police announced that investigators had determined the threat was not credible, and the lockdown was lifted. Roseville Joint Union High School District officials said in a message Thursday they were “reunifying” students with their parents who wished to take their children home early.
The school district officials also said the threats toward the campus were likely a “swatting” situation with a few leads to investigate.
Swatting is a gaming and social media trend in which someone fraudulently reports a serious threat at a certain target in order to prompt a large law enforcement response, sometimes including a SWAT team.
Ciampa said investigators worked over the following 24 hours and identified the 15-year-old student as the suspect responsible for making the online threats. He said the investigators also determined it was indeed a “swatting incident.”
School resource officers arrested the student, who posed no immediate threat to the campus, the police spokesman said.
“The Roseville Police Department takes every threat seriously, especially to our school campuses, and will remain vigilant in holding those responsible for causing fear and disruption in our community accountable,” Ciampa said.
