COLUMBUS – A 16-year-old was arrested early Thursday morning in southern Ohio after social media posts threatened violence aimed at several schools in the area, law enforcement officials said.
The teen was charged by the Scioto County Sheriff’s Department with five counts of inducing panic and one count of making a terrorist threat, according to a joint release Thursday from the office of Ohio attorney general Mike DeWine, Scioto County Sheriff Marty Donini and Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader
Donini’s and Reader’s offices and the police departments in Portsmouth and New Boston received calls from concerned parents Wednesday evening about a social media post from a Snapchat account in the name of Brie Savage claiming that schools in New Boston, Portsmouth, Clay, West and Waverly “better watch out that someone was coming to shoot people at the schools,” the release said.
Reader asked for the assistance of the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s Cyber Crimes and Criminal Intelligence Unit to help track the source of the threat.
Analysts traced the account to an address on State Route 23 in Portsmouth, where two juveniles were detained for questioning early Thursday, DeWine’s office said.
In addition, other information BCI gathered last night in the investigation was given to the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office for help in a separate investigation of school safety threats, the release said.