‘Imma shoot up Lauderdale Lakes Middle.’ Broward Schools worker charged with threats, cops say.

Devoun Cetoute, Carli Teproff
·2 min read
How to report threats made to South Florida schools — and what happens when you do

An employee at Broward County Public Schools has been charged with making bomb and mass shooting threats, deputies say.

Patrick Jean, a 28-year-old front desk attendant at Lauderdale Lakes Middle School, was arrested on Wednesday. He is facing two counts of threats to discharge a destructive device and two counts of written threats to kill or conduct a mass shooting, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said.

On Tuesday morning, BSO detectives received a tip that there were bombs at Lauderdale Lakes Middle, 3911 NW 30th Ave., and Boyd H. Anderson High School, deputies said.

“There is a bomb on Lauderdale Lakes Middle School’s campus and Boyd Anderson’s campus,” the tip read. “There are students lives at stake.”

Deputies and BSO’s Threat Management Unit swept both schools and determined the threats were “unfounded,” deputies said.

A few hours later, another tip came in that read, “Imma shoot up Lauderdale Lakes Middle School and Boyd Anderson’s school. This is not a joke.”

Deputies and detectives rushed back to the schools and conducted more searches. Again, the threats were deemed unfounded.

School threats are not uncommon in the Lauderdale Lakes area.

On Wednesday, Oriole Elementary School was evacuated for a bomb threat. Boyd Anderson, Oriole and Lauderdale Lakes Middle also were evacuated several times for similar reasons in 2018 and 2019.

A further investigation led detectives to Jean — who police say is the suspect in both threats. Authorities did not explain what led them to Jean and the arrest report was unclear if he had sent the tips.

They said following his arrest, Jean admitted to deputies that he made the threats. He is being held at the BSO Main Jail on a $40,000 bond.

Broward County Public Schools could not be immediately reached for comment.

The arrest comes a week after Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie was arrested on a perjury charge related to his grand jury testimony.

Runcie, who has been with the district for about 10 years, on Tuesday said he would resign.