Police arrest high school student in Lockport social media threats

Ben Joe, Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, N.Y.
·1 min read

Dec. 8—A 14-year old student at Lockport High School was charged Wednesday in connection with the two terrorist threats made on social media, each of them shutting the high school buildings and sending the student population home to work remotely.

Chief of Police Steve Abbott said that 9th-grader was charged at 11 a.m. this morning with two counts of making a terrorist threat, both class C felonies that would carry 3 1/2 to 15-years in prison if he was charged as an adult.

The student was also charged with two counts of misdemeanor making a false report, as well as with other pending charges.

"We've been working with our federal partners," Abbott said, referring to the efforts of the FBI to track down the source of the social media posts as the location had been hidden through Virtual Private Networks (VPN) software, which disguises the online identity.

Abbott also said because of the suspects age, his name is not being released, and investigation is continuing.