La. hit with flurry of school threats in wake of Fla. mass shooting

19th March 2018   ·   0 Comments

Since the Valentine’s Day mass shooting at a Florida high school that claimed 17 lives and fueled a renewed push for stiffer gun-control laws. Louisiana law enforcement agencies have reportedly responded to an average of four threats a day.

In the first 27 days since the Florida shooting, 106 threats were made against Louisiana schools and campuses, according to numbers gathered by the Louisiana State Police and the FBI Field Office in New Orleans. One such threat made at the University of New Orleans forced officials to shut down the campus for most of Monday, March 12.

“It was appropriate. I don’t think (UNO’s administration) could have handled it any better,” student Jeff Aguilar told FOX 8 News.

“It really did caught me off guard. Through everything that is happening right now, it really did alarm us. As a student, I really did feel scared for the safety of my fellow students,” student Michael Angelo said.

New Orleans police charged UNO student Nicholas Heard, 20, with terrorizing after he allegedly told two students he planned to shoot several people on UNO’s campus.

The university told employees not to report to work Monday and students in on-campus housing were told to remain in their rooms. Once the arrest was made, authorities made preparations to re-open the campus late Monday afternoon and re-start campus dining services.

Heard was being held at the New Orleans jail and bond had not been set as of Monday night. Online jail records did not indicate whether he has an attorney.

After the threat was lifted at UNO, its president, John Nicklow, said campus and city police, U.S. Marshals, and police from other nearby campuses had assisted the school. “I am also grateful to our students for their patience, cooperation and even words of encouragement that some offered during this ordeal,” Nicklow wrote.

Also Monday, authorities said a 14-year-old was arrested in connection with an unrelated threat at a New Orleans public school. Officials said the unidentified teen was arrested Saturday, March 10, adding it came a day after threats of a shooting at Dolores T. Aaron School came to light. The unidentified teen is accused of terrorizing and disruption of the operation of a school. Police said officers were in constant communication with officials at that pre-K through 8th grade charter school to ensure student safety.

“We have seen a wide variety of threats that have been made. Some of them are related to copy cats from the Florida shooting or from other shootings that have happened in and around the country,” LSP spokesperson Melissa Matey told FOX 8 News.

The Louisiana State Police is dealing with a number of threats made on social media, and some people who have seen those threats have shared them instead of reporting them, Matey said.

“If people see those threats they can email them directly to Louisiana State Police. They can let us know via our Facebook page. We do take private messages on there, and we will forward those threats over to the Louisiana Fusion Center.

Though some of the threats are unfounded, Matey says all are taken seriously even if the person making the threats says it was a prank.

“If there is a threat that is made and we investigate it and the person that is found to make the threat says they are joking, that doesn’t make a difference — that is still terrorizing. It is part of the state’s terrorizing state statue and they will be prosecuted,” Matey said.

According to the FBI and LSP, police arrested 62 people since February 14, and they range in age from 11 to 28.

The charge of terrorizing is a felony and carries up to 15 years in jail. In the cases where threats are made on social media, an additional five-year sentence can be added for the federal charge of threatening interstate communications.

“As shown by the number of arrests already effected by Louisiana law enforcement agencies, school threats are being taken seriously, and a zero tolerance policy is in place,” the FBI and LSP said in a joint statement.

This article originally published in the March 19, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.