Florida fifth grader arrested, charged with threatening a mass shooting, police say

A fifth grade scholar in Florida was arrested over the weekend and charged with sending a textual content message threatening to carry out a mass shooting, authorities stated.

In a press release Saturday, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said it had realized earlier that day of a "threatening textual content message" despatched by a pupil at an elementary school.

It mentioned its native school risk enforcement group was instantly notified and began investigating. The ten-year-old boy was interviewed and charged later with "making a written menace to conduct a mass shooting," the sheriff's office mentioned.

In video shared by authorities, the boy may be seen being led into a police vehicle.

“This student’s habits is sickening, especially after the current tragedy in Uvalde, Texas,” Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno stated in an announcement, noting that the menace came simply days after the deadly school shooting at Robb Elementary Faculty left 19 students and two lecturers dead.

“Proper now is just not the time to act like a little delinquent. It’s not humorous,” he said. “This youngster made a fake threat, and now he’s experiencing actual penalties.”

Marceno mentioned his team “didn’t hesitate one second...NOT ONE SECOND,” to investigate the incident.

The remark got here as authorities in Uvalde face mounting criticism over their response to the May 24 school shooting after it came to light that they waited roughly an hour for backup as a substitute of immediately transferring in on the gunman.

Chantal Da Silva is a breaking information editor for NBC Information Digital based mostly in London.