When Julian Edelman was visiting former teammate Danny Amendola in Texas recently he got a message on Instagram which read, "Dude, there is a kid in your comment section says he s going to shoot up a school, i think you should alert the authority."
A story in the New York Times detailed what happened next, which led to a teenager in Michigan being jailed.
"With the emotions of what happened [mass shooting recently at a high school in Florida], and I have a kid now, I said, holy Toledo, what is going on?" Edelman said to the Times.
Edelman got in touch with his assistant, Shannen Moen, in Boston and she went through the comments and found, "I'm going to shoot my school up watch the news."
Moen immediately called 911 and once Boston police arrived and saw the screen shot, detectives got involved. After doing some quick digging, they were able to find the sender's email and IP address, which was traced to Port Huron, Michigan. They then alerted police there who immediately drove to the house of where the message came from. Once there they found a 14-year-old who sent the message and also two rifles that belonged his mother.
The threat was made towards the middle school he attends. He was taken to a juvenile-detention center, where he remains. He was charged with making a false report of a threat of terrorism, which is felony, and he could spend up to four years in jail.
As for the person who alerted Edelman, the Patriots wide receiver said he will be sure to reach out to him.
"Thankfully, this kid said something," said Edelman. "We're going to send him something, a care package, just for his work. He's the real hero."
