Cops: Westhampton middle schooler threatened to 'shoot the school'
Westhampton Beach Middle School at 340 Mill Rd. in Westhampton Beach. Credit: James Carbone
A Westhampton Beach Middle School student threatened to “shoot the school” because he was annoyed and frustrated with fellow students, village police announced Thursday.
Westhampton Beach police said the 13-year-old boy, who was not identified because of his age, was charged with making a terroristic threat and aggravated harassment.
He will appear in Family Court at a later date, officials said.
Authorities said the teenager told other students that he was being bullied and that shooting the school was the only way to solve his problem, police said.
The student, authorities said, also made references to last week’s shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman shot and killed 19 students and two teachers.
The Westhampton threat was reported to police by school officials and investigated by the Westhampton Beach Criminal Investigations Unit and Southampton Town Police detectives. The teen was arrested Thursday at 1:30 p.m.
Thursday morning Riverhead Town police responded to Riverhead High School to investigate a threat of violence against the faculty and students allegedly made by a 15-year-old male student using Instagram. The boy was charged with making a terrorist threat and was to be held until his arraignment in Suffolk County Youth Court on Friday, a police news release said.
The boy, who was not identified because of his age, had been arrested Wednesday for making similar threats, police added.
Earlier this week, an 18-year-old student at Westbury High School was arrested after he allegedly tweeted threats to shoot up his school.
And last week, a 16-year-old Bellport High School student was arrested and charged after allegedly making an online threat of a “mass shooting” at the school.
Police this week have also responded this week to violent threats directed at schools in Uniondale, East Meadow and Levittown and Riverhead, authorities said.
While there are no other specified threats, Westhampton Beach police will have an increased presence in the school district in the coming days, officials said.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Westhampton Beach police at 631-702-1569.
Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.
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