BREWSTER – The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a social media threat of a shooting that occurred at Brewster High School on Thursday, March 14. The Putnam County Sheriff’s Deputy deployed as the School Resource Officer (SRO) at Brewster High School was alerted to the threat at 7:45 am on Thursday, according to Sheriff Kevin McConville.
The threat of a possible school shooting drew a rapid response of deputies and investigators to the school which was placed on a “lockout”, along with all other schools in the district as the threat was being investigated.
Sheriff McConville says that interviews were conducted with numerous students in an attempt to trace back the alleged threat to its source. Investigators worked with Brewster School District IT personnel to determine if the threat had originated from within the school district or outside. It was eventually determined that the threat messages had originated at a school district in the state of Washington, with a similar sounding name to Brewster, and was being reposted by the local students.
It was confirmed with the local Police Department in Washington that they had investigated a school shooting threat on the day prior and had made an arrest of a subject in their area.
Sheriff McConville is asking for parents to speak with their children and remind them of the panic that can ensue when they share messages from unknown sources.
