A 10-year-old boy has been arrested after allegedly threatening a mass shooting.
According to police, a fifth-grade student at Patriot Elementary School in Cape Coral, Florida, allegedly sent a text making the threat, as Fox News reported.
After the School Threat Enforcement Team was notified, it began analytical research.
Because of the suspect’s age, the Youth Services Criminal Investigations Division took over the case.
Police later arrested the boy over the weekend after he was interviewed by detectives, as the outlet noted.
“This student’s behavior is sickening, especially after the recent tragedy in Uvalde, Texas,” Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said.
He continued, “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.”
Marceno stressed it is not the time to “act like a little delinquent,” adding, “It’s not funny. This child made a fake threat, and now he’s experiencing real consequences.”
A 10-year-old boy was arrested this weekend for threatening to carry out a school shooting in Florida. pic.twitter.com/vxRzKClO4w
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) May 30, 2022
The arrest comes less than a week after a gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two adults.
DOJ spokesman Anthony Coley said in a statement, “At the request of Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, the U.S. Department of Justice will conduct a Critical Incident Review of the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24.”
As CNN pointed out, Texas officials and law enforcement have received criticism over their response to the shooting.
Coley explained the department’s review aims “to provide an independent account of law enforcement actions and responses that day, and to identify lessons learned and best practices to help first responders prepare for and respond to active shooter events.”
According to Coley, the review “will be conducted with the Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing.”
He continued, “As with prior Justice Department after-action reviews of mass shootings and other critical incidents, this assessment will be fair, transparent, and independent. The Justice Department will publish a report with its findings at the conclusion of its review.”
The department’s announcement was made on the same day President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden visited a memorial to the victims outside of the school.
They heard calls to “do something.”
Biden replied, “We will.”