Bellevue teens arrested for threatening school shooting on social media

BELLEVUE, Washington — Two juveniles were arrested by Bellevue police Tuesday morning after threatening over the weekend to kill several girls at their high schools.

Monday around 10:30 p.m., Bellevue police responded to a call from three young girls who claimed to have received “repeated death threats” from two minors, a boy and a girl.

The victims said the two juveniles threatened on social media to find the girls at their high schools — Newport, Sammamish and Bellevue — and shoot them Tuesday, police said. The girls told police the suspect boy brandished what appeared to be a gun and also showed a loaded magazine on video.

“Through our investigation, we discovered that the subjects knew each other and that this was some sort of disagreement that continued to escalate and develop, then escalated into threats of violence ” said Captain Shearer of the Bellevue Police Department.

Police said as threats on social media increased over the weekend, the girls realized the threat of a gun being used against them was both “credible and imminent.” .

“In our search warrant, we found several guns and firearms that were used in the videos,” Shearer said. “They were brandishing guns, they were pulling out magazines with bullets in them, so the threats were very credible.”

Police said they developed probable cause to arrest the two juvenile suspects. After searching the suspect girl's home, officers also checked the suspect boy's home, authorities said. The suspect boy's parents told police they were both inside, but refused to let police inside.

All of us – young people, parents and everyone in the community – must take threats of violence seriously, but especially threats of gun violence – whether in person or online,” said Navy Captain Shelby Shearer. Bellevue Police Department. “Thankfully, with timely and critical assistance from the community, Bellevue Police were able to interrupt this escalating threat, take both individuals into custody and remove their firearms before a tragedy occurred in our community. community.

Around 1:35 a.m. Tuesday, while police were in the process of obtaining a search warrant for the home, the girl suspect attempted to flee through the back door, officials said. Police arrested the girl and boy a short time later without incident, police said.

“We really feel like we stopped something bad from happening,” Shearer said. “As parents, we need to be aware of what is happening and talk to our children about it.”

Bellevue police then served a search warrant on the home and were able to recover several guns and ammunition inside, according to police.

Police said it is still an open investigation and Bellevue police have no information to suggest the two juveniles' threats were random or that there is a threat to the community.