A 17-year-old Arkansas High School student was arrested Tuesday night for allegedly making threats during his eighth period class to “shoot up the school.”
According to an affidavit, the student claimed to have made the threatening statements in response to bullying at the hands of another student. Witnesses allegedly reported hearing the student, who is white, ask about the race of students who have engaged in school shootings and allegedly stated that it is “nerdy white boys,” who commit such acts.
One witness allegedly reported that when asked why the student was asking about the race of school shooters, the suspect student responded by stating, “Don’t come tomorrow or you will all be ready to die. Tell your parents you love them,” the affidavit states.
When interviewed by Texarkana, Ark., police at his home Tuesday night, the student allegedly admitted to asking a friend, “Who shoots up schools,” but denied threatening anyone directly. The student allegedly reported that he was involved in an “altercation” that day with a student who had been bullying him for three years.
Under Arkansas law, persons 17 and under accused of criminal misconduct are charged in the juvenile court system. According to a Texarkana, Ark., Police Department press release, the student was charged with first-degree terroristic threatening at the time of his arrest Tuesday by T.A.P.D. Threat Investigator Rick Cockrell.
