YONKERS – Two male students, ages 15 and 14, are charged with making a terroristic threat as a felony.
Yonkers Police investigated text threats on Snapchat and Facebook aimed at students at Lincoln High School.
The investigation yielded a 15-year-old freshman at Lincoln, who was allegedly primarily responsible for initiating the online threats. A 14-year-old male friend of his who is a freshman at a different Yonkers high school shared the messages.
The messages indicated their intentions were to carry out a school shooting and amass 20 victims each, and with the help of a third person, achieve a total of at least 60 victims.
Police said the threats were limited to social media postings. A search of their homes and backgrounds yielded no weapons or information that would indicate any means of implementing the threats at this time.
Police Commissioner John Mueller said the department “takes any and every threat against our schools and students with the utmost seriousness. We will commit every resource to ensure the safety of our communities, especially our youth.”
He said the arrests of the two teens is a “warning to those young people that engage in online misbehavior, that these types of fear-inducing actions have serious consequences as these two teens have just learned.”
Dr. Edwin Quezada said the school district “will be relentless in pursing any individuals who threaten the safety of the students and staff in our schools, and who abuse social media.”
