The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office reports that a 14-year-old student from Hernando High School in Brooksville received two disturbing phone calls on Monday evening, May 15. In the back-to-back calls, an unknown caller threatened to shoot up Hernando High the next day and advised him not to go to school. On May 16, the student reported this to the School Resource deputy at Hernando High.
The Crime Analysis Unit quickly began an investigation to trace where the calls were made and who made them. Within a short time, they found that the calls were placed by an individual residing in Delaware.
Deputies immediately requested assistance from the Smyrna Police Department in Delaware. Local officers went to the address associated with the phone number and located a 14-year-old male. The suspect said he made the threatening calls and claimed to have received the number from an online gaming friend who attends Hernando High School. The suspect stated that the calls were intended as a prank. Because the suspect is a minor, his identity remains undisclosed. He was apprehended by the Smyrna Police Department and charged with Making a Terroristic Threat.
Based on the information provided by the suspect, Hernando County deputies located the suspect’s friend, a 16-year-old student from Hernando High School. The student revealed that he had given his friend’s number to the suspect, but was unaware of the school shooting threat he planned to make. Instead, the suspect told him he would call his friend using a voice-changing app to make inappropriate comments in a female voice as a prank. The student, unaware of the threat made by the suspect, will not face charges in connection with the incident.
