US: Fifth-grade Florida student arrested for making shooting threat as gun violence surges

Amidst a surge in gun violence in the US, police have arrested a fifth-grade student in Florida allegedly for sending a text message threatening a school shooting as the Biden administration scrambles efforts for stricter gun laws and heightened security in academic institutions. Just days after the "horrific" Texas school shooting killed 19 young children and two adults, which took place in the backdrop of the racially-motivated Buffalo supermarket shooting, Lee County Sheriff’s Office posted on social media about arresting the 10-year-old boy over “sickening behaviour”. 

The Office said that they were made aware of the boy’s threats on Saturday. According to the social media post, the law enforcement said that the threat was made by a student in fifth grade at Patriot Elementary School in Cape Coral.  Sheriff Carmine Marceno called the student's behaviour “sickening”, especially after the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Additionally, Marceno vowed to have “law and order in our schools”. 

Sheriff Carmine Marceno said, “This student’s behavior is sickening, especially after the recent tragedy in Uvalde, Texas”.

“Making sure our children are safe is paramount. We will have law and order in our schools! My team didn’t hesitate one second…NOT ONE SECOND, to investigate this threat,” he added.

The fifth-grade student, Daniel Isaac Marquez,10, was charged with ‘Making a Written Threat to Conduct a Mass Shooting,’ said the Lee County Sheriff's Office. Marceno also noted, “Right now is not the time to act like a little delinquent.  It’s not funny.  This child made a fake threat, and now he’s experiencing real consequences”. The 10-year-old was interviewed by a detective who developed probable cause for the student's arrest. 

It is to note here that at least eight mass shootings have taken place across the United States over the weekend following the Texas school shooting on Tuesday. Three other shooting incidents took place between Wednesday and Friday. According to Gun Violence Archive, which is an independent organisation for collecting data from 7,500 sources, 8 people have been killed and another 45 were left wounded in the five days following the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on May 24.

Texas school shooter gave warning signs, made threats before May 24

The 10-year-old was arrested in Florida as the investigation developed into the incident which saw an 18-year-old gunman in Uvalde, Texas opening fire on a classroom of young children and their teachers on May 24. But, warning signs were reportedly mounting in the months leading up to the incident which became America’s deadliest school shooting in a decade. 

As per CNN, the teenager had used the social media application ‘Yubo’ to threaten school shootings and rape and also to show off a rifle he had purchased. Keanna Baxter, 17, told the San Antonio Express-News that she had learned how the 18-year-old shooter could be unpredictable from a friend who had dated him. Baxter told the outlet, “He was overall just aggressive, like violent…He would try and fight women. He would try and fight anyone who told him no – if he didn’t get his way, he’d go crazy.”

Image: AP/Unsplash