Florida authorities have arrested a 10-year-old boy for allegedly threatening in a text message to conduct a mass shooting at his elementary school.
According to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, the fifth-grader at a Cape Coral elementary school had sent a “threatening text message,” and authorities arrested him hours later.
“This student’s behavior is sickening, especially after the recent tragedy in Uvalde, Texas,” Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno (R) said in a statement, according to The Hill.
The minor was charged with making a written threat to conduct a mass shooting, according to the police affidavit.
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The development came as the nation grapples with a wave of mass shootings and after 19 students and two teachers were killed by a gunman at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Marceno, who brands himself as Florida’s “law and order” sheriff, said the boy who allegedly sent the threatening text message would face “real consequences.”
“Making sure our children are safe is paramount,” Marceno said. “We will have law and order in our schools! My team didn’t hesitate one second…NOT ONE SECOND, to investigate this threat.”
As noted by The Hill, “Local police have come under scrutiny for their response to the Uvalde shooting after it was revealed the gunman was in the building for more than an hour before Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents entered the classroom and killed him.”
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said on Friday that authorities made the wrong decision to wait to confront the gunman.
