A Cleveland Hill High School freshman told Cheektowaga police his short-lived bomb threat on the Twitter social network was only a joke – but police are not laughing, especially in the aftermath of last week’s school shootings in Newtown, Conn.
Police said today they charged the 14-year-old boy on felony counts of making a terrorist threat and first-degree falsely reporting an incident, and notified both the FBI and the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force.
After the boy sent out the Twitter message about 8:45 p.m. Wednesday, police said.
The mother of one of the hundred or so fellow students who saw the message – which read, “I’m about to bomb Cleve Hill” – notified police.
Though the boy deleted the tweet about three minutes later, officers soon arrived at his home and spoke to him and his mother, according to police officials.
Police said they firmly doubted the bomb threat, but that its distribution over the Internet meant it had to be taken seriously. The boy’s name was not released by the police agency and his school status could not be learned this evening.
email: mgryta@buffnews.com
Police said today they charged the 14-year-old boy on felony counts of making a terrorist threat and first-degree falsely reporting an incident, and notified both the FBI and the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force.
After the boy sent out the Twitter message about 8:45 p.m. Wednesday, police said.
The mother of one of the hundred or so fellow students who saw the message – which read, “I’m about to bomb Cleve Hill” – notified police.
Though the boy deleted the tweet about three minutes later, officers soon arrived at his home and spoke to him and his mother, according to police officials.
Police said they firmly doubted the bomb threat, but that its distribution over the Internet meant it had to be taken seriously. The boy’s name was not released by the police agency and his school status could not be learned this evening.
email: mgryta@buffnews.com