On Jan. 16, 2014, Heritage K-8 Charter School and three other nearby schools in Escondido, California were shut down for an entire day after very specific violent threats made online were reported to authorities. Police originally thought it was a local girl who made the threats, but after a long investigation they determined it was actually a teenager right here in Miami impersonating that girl who was responsible.
According to NBC San Diego, local police received reports of a threat made against the school written in a chat room on an unspecified social networking site. The threat specified that the school would be attacked at 10:30 a.m. on that Friday and included the phrase "barrage of bullets."
At the time it appeared that the threat was coming from a young girl in the area. Police interviewed the girl with her parents present but soon realized she was not behind the threat. They then determined that someone had hacked into her accounts and made the threat.
"This minor child is a victim of a very malicious personal attack of identity theft," Escondido Police Lt. Griffin said at the time. "[This is] not a hoax, it's a very serious crime."
After a two month investigation police determined that it was a 17-year-old in Miami behind the threats. The teen has no affiliation with the school or any of its students.
The unidentified Miami teen has not yet been charged with a crime, but the Escondido Police Department they have an officer in the area along with a member of the FBI cybrercrimes unit.
