13-year-old arrested, accused of threatening to commit shooting at Lake Asbury Junior High School

Jacksonville FL — Wednesday, the Clay County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of a 13-year-old boy accused of threatening to shoot up Lake Asbury Junior High School. Sheriff Michelle Cook says a student at the school came forward and told a teacher after seeing a possible threat on an app called House Party.

“The suspect was reported to have a colt rifle in his hands during a chat and threatened to commit a shooting at Lake Asbury Junior High School.” Cook says.

She says when the suspect was interviewed he admitted to having the rifle, ammunition and acknowledged to making the threat to the school. She says the 13-year-old said the rifle belong to his grandfather and he got it out of a safe at his grandfather’s house.

“It appears that the grandparents did not know about this and he had learned the combination to the safe and was able to access the safe and retrieve the weapon.” Cook says.

According to the suspect’s arrest report he was arrested Tuesday and taken to the Duval Regional Juvenile Detention Center. The arrest report also says the threats were made three weeks ago on August 12th and Cook says the Sheriff’s Office was made aware of the threats Tuesday.

Investigators believe the suspect was acting along and they are still searching for a motive. The Clay County Superintendent David Broskie says the student has been suspended and won’t return to school though the whole process and could be expelled.

“We need to let this, let this play out, do the threat assessment part to evaluate the student and whether additional mental health is needed, but the school system’s not going to tolerate this kind of behavior on any Clay County campus.” Broskie says.

The suspect’s arrest report says the 13-year-old is charged with two counts of written threats to kill or do bodily harm.

We’re told the case is still under investigation and Sheriff Cook says any other students that may have been on the app during the incident are urged to come forward and tell an adult.

Cox Media Group