‘This is not a joke’: Decatur Police Chief reacts to school shooting threats involving 11 and 13 year olds

DECATUR, Ill. (WCIA) — Police are investigating after two school shooting threats on Wednesday night in Decatur. Two children were arrested in connection to the social media posts law enforcement believes they each made.

Shane Brandel, Decatur’s Police Chief, said a 13-year-old made a shooting threat to Stephen Decatur Middle School using a “ghost” account. That’s a profile that disguises itself to look “fake,” the chief explained.

While they were investigating, police were alerted of another threat.

“An 11-year-old posted some things online also talking about a school shooting in the Decatur area because they thought it would be funny,” Brandel said.

But to him, this is no laughing matter.

“The Decatur Police Department does not see this as funny,” he said. “The Decatur Police Department will aggressively investigate these threats every single time.”

Brandel has one message for kids.

“If juveniles think it’s funny to do this, they may not think it’s so funny to spend time in juvenile detention,” he sternly said.

Both suspects were charged with disorderly conduct for making a school threat. The older student is being held at the Peoria County Juvenile Detention Center and can be sentenced up to 30 days.

Police also searched the teenager’s home and found multiple guns owned by a family member with a valid FOID card. Officers seized some of them.

Police say the 13-year-old was previously involved in a separate incident in August 2024 for a similar threat.

The 11-year-old is too young to be detained. Per Illinois law, the next steps are up to a judge.

“This is not a joke anymore,” Brandel said. “This is sadly a situation that occurs way too often in our country and the only way we can prevent it as a police department is to act on these threats when we know about them to the furthest extent that we are allowed to by law.”

Brandel also confirmed that one student was enrolled with Decatur Public Schools, and the other was a student at a charter school.

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