Boca Raton man arrested after posting threats to shoot students at Loggers' Run Middle
BOCA RATON — A 22-year-old Boca Raton man was arrested early Thursday morning after posting online that he planned to shoot six students at Loggers' Run Middle School on Monday, police records show.
Fernando Rodrigo Gaete, an alumnus of Loggers' Run, was arrested at his home around midnight — just six hours after he'd made the threats in two Discord channels online used for discussions about the game Pokémon Go.
Gaete, whose username in the channels was "@PaulAllen," posted identical messages in two different channels around 6:11 p.m. Wednesday. The messages read: "I Dominic Valentine vow to shoot up Loggers Run middle school on Monday morning gonna shoot 6 students," according to his arrest report.
School began across Palm Beach County on Aug. 10.
Investigators did not address in their report why Gaete's username does not match his name or why he used the alias Dominic Valentine in his threats.
Another user in the channel reported the threats to Palm Beach County School Police at 7:27 p.m., about an hour after they were posted. School Police alerted the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
Sheriff's office investigators contacted Discord, an online chat application often used by gamers, to track the IP address of the user who wrote the threats. Investigators then contacted Comcast, Gaete's internet provider, to track the IP address to his home in western Boca Raton.
Just after midnight, sheriff's detectives arrived at Gaete's apartment and interviewed his father, who said Gaete had been home all day. Gaete's father said his son had access to guns that were stored in a safe inside the apartment, according to the police report.
Gaete confessed to posting the threats online, and was arrested and charged with one count of writing threats to conduct a mass shooting or terrorism act, a second-degree felony in Florida punishable by up to 15 years in jail.
Asked why Gaete made the threat towards Loggers' Run students, he said he was "very angry," the police report says.
He was booked into the Palm Beach County Detention Center at 4 a.m. Thursday, just 10 hours after he'd posted the threats in Discord. Gaete remained jailed Sunday afternoon on $100,000 bail.
Police seek to remove Gaete's guns after threat to Loggers' Run Middle
After Gaete was arrested, police filed for a risk protection order against him that, if granted, would result in his firearms being removed from his family's home.
Risk protection orders, instituted in Florida by the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, are sought by law enforcement to remove firearms and ammunition from people who police believe to be a danger to themselves or others.
A judge will decide on the risk protection order Aug. 30, court records show.
Katherine Kokal is a journalist covering education at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at kkokal@pbpost.com. Help support our work, subscribe today!
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Boca Raton man arrested on threats to shoot students at Loggers Run
