LEE COUNTY, Fla. — A fifth-grade student was arrested Saturday for threatening to pull off a mass shooting via text messagesaccording to investigators at Patriot Elementary in Cape Coral.
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno spoke out about the arrest and how quickly deputies responded.
"Any person that thinks that as a sheriff or law enforcement officer that we should not immediately address a threat that's committing deadly force to our children who are helpless I have no use for there's nothing I can say to help that person.
Marceno says "We have to protect those who cannot protect themselves we are not ever going to sit back and let someone hurt our children."
The student is currently being held in the department of juvenile justice and is facing a felony charge.
The 10-year-old boy obtained an attorney and will be in court on June 13, 2022.
In an interview on Tuesday Sheriff Marceno says "So unfortunately we sit here talking about a 10-year-old, a 5th grader that commits a written threat to commit a mass shooting."
Investigators say they acted quickly since there were firearms legally in the household where the child lived and due to the threat.
Sheriff Marceno says threats come in every day and no matter the kind of threat they are all taken seriously.
He says the culture has changed here in 2022 and parents need to be more strict, more discipline, and talk with their children about how serious these threats are.
Sheriff Carmine Marceno, "So I'm not in the business of being upset because a very small percentage is upset to show a 10-year-olds face or the perp walk."
The Sheriff's Office is using the Real-Time Intelligence Center for training to understand hallways and classrooms and is focused on technology.
"We're in these chatrooms, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, you'll never know the name you'll never know who it is but we are watching everywhere detectives are watching all the social media platforms if someone writes a threat we're coming full force," says Sheriff Marceno.
