Police detain 14-year-old following social media shooting threat at Edison High in Fresno
Police said they detained a 14-year-old who was involved in making threats to shoot students at Edison High School in Fresno on Thursday.
Police tweeted around 8:15 a.m. that they made contact with the teen — eliminating any threat — but would be beefing up patrols in the area.
Sgt. Diana Trueba Vega said it was not immediately clear if the person making the threat was an Edison High student, but that he had been detained.
Someone made police aware of a social media post in which the person made threats, and student resource officers and officials with Fresno Unified School District got involved, Trueba Vega said.
Police Chief Paco Balderrama said investigators were working to determine where the teen was enrolled, and said officers had not determined if the teen had access to a gun. The chief said the incident was not a viable threat.
“The safety of our kids is our top priority,” Balderrama said. “We do have to focus all of our resources until it’s determined not a threat.”
The teen may not have written the actual threat on social media, Balderrama said, “but he was definitely involved.”
In an email obtained by the Ed Lab, Edison High Principal Joey Munoz said that as soon as his team was made aware of the threat, they reported it to law enforcement.
The Fresno Police Department tweeted that the department began “investigating immediately” after they learned of the threat.
“PD is increasing their presence in the area, and we will have added FUSD safety at Edison today,” said FUSD spokesperson Nikki Henry in a text to The Bee’s Education Lab.
There’s no “current threat to Edison or any other Fresno Unified school,” she said.
This threat comes a day after a shooting at an Oakland campus that left six injured.
Fresno police responded to another shooting threat reported at Bullard High School earlier in September, although that report proved to be a hoax. Schools in Santa Barbara, Stockton, Chula Vista and Santa Rosa also received similar hoax calls.
Last week at Clovis High, a “suspicious phone call” also prompted officials to order students to shelter in classrooms as police officers investigated the campus. No credible threat against the school was found.
This story was originally published September 29, 2022 at 8:34 AM.
