Student arrested in connection with Fallbrook High gun threat

On Tuesday, Nov. 13, a social media post began circulating that was perceived to be a threat of violence at Fallbrook High School planned for Wednesday, Nov. 14.

The photo in the post on Snapchat featured a handgun appearing to sit on the leg in the lap of a person with the accompanying text, "don't come to school tomorrow fallbrook high."

By 3:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department announced in a press release that a 14-year-old juvenile, who attends Fallbrook High School, was arrested for posting the threat and booked into Juvenile Hall.

According to the report by Sgt. Patrick Yates, no weapons were found at the juvenile's residence and "it is believed the suspect had no intention of actually following through with a shooting."

Yates said it is the policy of the Sheriff's Department not to release identifying information about a juvenile who has been arrested.

When the post began circulating on social media sites on Tuesday, Fallbrook High School issued a response on the school's Facebook page and not long after, sent an email to Fallbrook High parents with a message from the school's administration.

The school shared the content of the email on its Facebook page on Wednesday morning: "Good morning. This is an update regarding the Snapchat posting of the firearm yesterday evening and threat to Fallbrook High School. Police have spent the night investigating and have accessed SnapChat. They have also addressed the names on the Snapchat which turned out to have no credible involvement in this threat. The Snapchat account was newly created yesterday and at this point has no credible source. We are having school today with a strong police presence on campus. We will stay vigilant and keep you posted on any new developments."

Sgt. Yates said that administrators called the Sheriff's Department after learning about the threatening post. Sgt. Yates said detectives and members of the Crime Suppression Team from the Sheriff's Fallbrook Substation worked through the night and into the morning on the case.

He said as a precaution, extra uniformed deputies were present at the school on Wednesday and remained there throughout the day.

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Jeff Pack can be reached at [email protected].