12-year-old charged with making terroristic threats

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A 12-year-old Athens boy has been charged with making terroristic threats against local schools. The threats were made on social media and included images of guns and the names of schools in Clarke County, according to a news release from the Athens-Clarke County Police Department (ACCPD).

Police were alerted to the situation when people started calling them about the posts on September 5, says department spokesperson Lt. Jody Thompson.

He says, “ACCPD detectives and crime analysts identified the account and located the suspect.”

Thompson says the boy did not have any weapons. The images of the guns were taken from the internet. He was charged and then detained by the Department of Juvenile Justice.

The Athens arrest follows a similar one in Gainesville, where a 14-year-old was taken into custody and charged with making terroristic threats and disrupting the operation of a public school.

Both incidents come at a time of heightened alert following the deadly mass shooting on September 4 at Apalachee High School in Winder.