One teenager is in jail after making threats on a fake Instagram account against Silver Creek Middle School.
His arrest comes within 12 hours of the original social media postings.
Police say the teen admitted he was behind the threat and did it as a joke.
“I’m coming for you Silver Creek, I can’t wait, I’m tired of your ****,” Sellersburg Police Chief Russ Whelan said of the threat. “It had some pictures of guns and bullets and things of that nature.”The 14-year-old is being held at the juvenile detention center in Clark County.
“He said he thought it’d be funny and it was a joke,” said Whelan. “I’m sure that he doesn’t think it’s funny now. We don’t believe this is connected to other incidents.”
The teen is charged with intimidation and identity theft and deception, for using another student’s name on the post.
Whelan said the suspect used a picture and name of a classmate at Silver Creek Middle School to throw everyone off.
“He actually created a dummy account,” noted Whelan. “He just happened to have …they were friends at one time…so he happened to have photos of the other boy. He decided to create it and thought others will get their kicks out of it.”
Officers worked quickly to track down the actual 14-year-old boy who made the post. “He came clean and said, you know, I did it,” said Whelan.
“Investigators are still doing a few more interviews,” Whelan said. “We want to make sure there are no others involved. We had a little bit of luck and lot of lot of good investigative work from my guys. We get a threat last night at 8p and get an arrest about 12 hours later. Makes me feel good from our side.”
It has been a frightening week, with some JCPS as well as Jeffersonville schools and Salem Community Schools all on heightened alert after threatening clown posts which turned out to be a hoax.
Now that a teen is in jail, police hope it sends a clear message. “You’re gonna go to jail. We’re going to catch you, you’re gonna go to jail, and there’s going to be some severe and harsh punishment to go with this,” said Whelan.
Police do not believe he is linked to any of the other social media threats.
