(WWJ) – A teenager from Maryland has been arrested after allegedly making threats to “shoot up” Oxford High School.
The 17-year-old from Baltimore was arrested last week and charged in Maryland juvenile court with multiple crimes after investigators got an OK2Say tip earlier this month.
He was charged with making threats of mass harm and improper use of a telephone for the alleged threats that police began investigating on Aug. 14.
That day investigators with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office interviewed three 14-year-old students and a 39-year-old woman from Oxford Township after a series of threatening calls were made to their homes.
In one instance, the suspect told one of the 14-year-olds he was going to shoot up the school and that the student was going to be shot next. The suspect also made inappropriate sexual comments to at least one of the students and a woman, according to the sheriff’s office.
Investigators were eventually able to link the calls to a phone number in Maryland and found the address where he lived. He was interviewed by Maryland State Police troopers last Thursday and confessed to making the calls.
While no firearms were found in the teen suspect’s home and police believe he “had no means to carry out the threat,” Sheriff Mike Bouchard said his office will continue to “hold anyone, anywhere accountable for threats they make against our community.”
Authorities say the suspect also wrote a letter of apology.
“We run down threats with a sense of urgency and greatly appreciated that they do as well,” Sheriff Bouchard said of the Maryland State Police troopers. “Whether a threat is intended to be carried out or not, it terrifies people and is a crime."
Detectives believe the suspect may have obtained phone numbers for the victims through a mutual acquaintance who attended school in this area several years ago but no longer lives in the state, the sheriff’s department said.
This November 30 will mark two years since a 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley opened fire inside Oxford High School, killing four students and injuring six other students and a teacher. The confessed shooter is awaiting word on whether he’ll face life in prison without parole, while his parents have also been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
The sheriff’s office does not believe the Maryland teen’s threats were prompted by the 2021 shooting.
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