A teenage boy was arrested in Berkeley, California, on Monday after police received a tip he was “recruiting other high school students to participate in a mass shooting and/or bombing” at a local high school.
When authorities searched the teen’s home they found “parts to explosives and assault rifles, several knives and electronic devices that could be used to create additional weapons”, police said.
The arrest comes in the wake of a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
Since that massacre – which unfolded less than two weeks after a gunman killed 10 and injured three at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York – authorities across the US have made multiple arrests for threats against schools.
Police in Berkeley said they procured a search warrant for the teen’s home after receiving the tip. The youth services unit then assumed control of the investigation.
Investigators interviewed witnesses, examined evidence and obtained an arrest warrant. The teen surrendered to police and was arrested on suspicion of threatening to commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury, and possessing destructive device materials, authorities said.
Education officials said they were in “very close contact” with police. The school district said it “relied on the expertise of [Berkeley police] in their assessment of any ongoing risk to our school community after police confiscated what they describe as parts of weapons”.
“We were also in steady communication with police about the whereabouts of this student,” officials said, saying they alerted administrators and security staffers about the investigation.
“Throughout the investigation period, we were assured that this individual did not pose an immediate threat to the Berkeley high school community,” they said. Education authorities said that they were “committed” to conducting their own parallel investigation.
On Monday, a high school student in Wellington Village, Ohio, was arrested for alleged threats against a school. The student’s behavior was considered a “reliable threat”, 19 News in Cleveland reported.
In New York, an 18-year-old student from Long Island was arrested on Tuesday for stating “his desire to conduct a violent act towards students and faculty members” at his school, police said. The teen was suspended from school in May after his alleged involvement in several fights, ABC4 New York reported.
Police in Florida arrested a 10-year-old fifth-grader after allegedly learning of a “threatening text message”. The boy was charged with “making a written threat to conduct a mass shooting”, the Lee county sheriff said.
“Right now is not the time to act like a little delinquent. It’s not funny,” the sheriff, Carmine Marceno, said in a statement. “This child made a fake threat, and now he’s experiencing real consequences.”
This article was amended on 2 June 2022, to correctly quote a police statement saying that “parts to” explosives and assault rifles had been found.
