On Tuesday January 31, 2017, at the start of school, a Tarpon Springs school
resource officer was approached by two students at the school.
The students advised the officer that they were concerned about comments made by a 16 year-old classmate on Friday afternoon.
According to a press release by Sgt Robert Faugno of the Tarpon Springs Police, the student stated that he wanted to place a destructive device in the vicinity of the high school cafeteria to harm fellow students and cause damage to the school.
He reportedly also stated that he wanted to harm the school’s assigned resource officers and any other law enforcement officer that responded to the location as a result of the discharge of the device.
Tarpon Springs detectives were assigned to investigate the threat made. As a result of the investigation, the teen was arrested at the school and charged with threatening to discharge a destructive device, a second degree felony.
Investigators searched the teen’s home and did not discover any evidence of destructive device making materials or components.
He was transported to the Pinellas County Juvenile Detention Center after his arrest.