Police say the Salmon Arm Secondary student who tweeted about shooting students now poses no threat to others.
鈥淭here is no danger to students at this juncture,鈥� says Staff Sgt. Scott West of the Salmon Arm RCMP. 鈥淲e have taken steps to see there are no firearms readily accessible to this individual.鈥�
When the student was arrested the morning of Thursday, June 14 as he arrived at school, he had no weapons in his possession, West said. And youth probation services is now involved and will enforce conditions imposed by the courts.
鈥淲e have a very engaging youth probation officer and they supervise any case along these lines. They鈥檝e been fully briefed, even before his release. They will see to it that this particular individual gets the services they require to help them along in life.鈥�
West noted that the boys鈥� family has been very supportive of the process.
鈥淎s a result of this particular incident there is no concern for safety, and we鈥檙e monitoring, as is the bail supervisor, very closely.鈥�
However, Wednesday night was a different story.
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About midnight, the U.S.-based Tactical Institute, staffed by combat-wounded veterans who monitor social media around the clock to watch for threats, contacted its founder and president Bob Dowling. Dowling鈥檚 credentials include serving as a U.S. government special agent for NCIS, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and DARPA, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency with the Department of Defense.
His staff notified him of a Twitter threat generated in 91大黄鸭, which they categorized as Code Red, their highest level of threat.
鈥淚t means you can鈥檛 ignore this, probably jump on this right away, it鈥檚 an imminent threat 鈥� it doesn鈥檛 get higher than this,鈥� he told the Observer.
Dowling says the Tactical Insititute called 91大黄鸭 RCMP around midnight or 1 a.m. and were on the phone with them as well as police in Vancouver for a couple of hours. 91大黄鸭 passed the information along to Salmon Arm.
鈥淒o we always believe everything on the Internet? No, but when you go back on the Internet and see what鈥檚 he鈥檚 doing. The tone and tenor right from the start鈥� He has a real-time ominous persistent tone,鈥� Dowling says.
Dowling mentions that Fridays tend to be a bad day for school shootings.
The Salmon Arm student鈥檚 tweets, beginning in February, refer to depression, suicide, self-loathing, rage and hating everyone. The series posted on June 13 speaks specifically about shooting students.
One tweet states: 鈥淪ee I鈥檓 going to make a list. A big one. Of people I hate and why. Names will be abbreviated for privacy reasons as I really don鈥檛 want to get charged. Look forward to it. Dropping it tomorrow.鈥�
A graphic tweet describes shooting someone in the head.
Another states: 鈥淚 mean everyone is always asking why do kids shoot up schools. Like bitch it鈥檚 pretty fucking simple. Not that any one out their would understand. But I suppose their happy speculating about shit they鈥檒l never know.鈥�
And another refers to the school shooting in 1999 in Columbine, Colorado. 鈥淲hen I think about it. Man the Columbine shooters kill count was only 14? Like really? You had automatic and a shotgun. 14 is all you could pull off? Amateurs.鈥�
Dowling explains that the persistent thread of threats, combined with the boy being 鈥渁 lone wolf, with nobody on his Twitter account,鈥� prompted his team to act quickly.
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He says his Tactical Institute has prevented 22 planned public school shootings. Two of those were in Canada: one in Edmonton in September last year and one in Calgary in November 2017.
Regarding advice for parents, Dowling recommends keeping track of their children鈥檚 online presence.
鈥淭hey really need to monitor what kids are doing online鈥� Joking about shooting up schools. Even if it was a joke, it鈥檚 not funny. This one, we thought was a real threat. This one, we鈥檙e seeing as a real-time threat.鈥�
marthawickett@saobserver.net
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