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WEST JORDAN — A boy was arrested Tuesday evening after police say he posted a picture of himself holding a gun on Instagram and indicated he would shoot up a West Jordan middle school.
Police received multiple calls about a social media post by the boy indicating a threat at Joel P. Jensen Middle School, 8105 S. 3200 West, West Jordan Police Sgt. J.C. Holt said.
“A friend asked him in the comments, ‘are you going to shoot up the school?’ The (boy) responded to that comment with an expletive ‘yes’ and then had some other emojis and the hashtag ‘Joel P. Jensen,’” Holt said.
Holt said he didn’t believe the boy was a student of the school, but may have been at one time. The boy's name and age were not released.
After a shooting at a Parkland, Florida high school last month that left 17 dead, Holt added officers took the threat “very seriously.” Police were able to identify the boy, locate him and take him into custody for questioning, Holt said.
Since the Parkland shooting, authorities have dealt with numerous social media threats on various schools across the state. Some threats have also resulted in arrests.
Holt said police would be pressing the district attorney's office to file charges in the case, and added that police will take any and all social media threats seriously. He also credited those who alerted police and encouraged anyone who sees any suspicious social media posts to report it to authorities.
“Even if it was a joke, we don’t consider it to be a joke,” Holt said.
