Florida fifth grader arrested, charged with threatening a mass shooting, police say

A fifth grade scholar in Florida was arrested over the weekend and charged with sending a textual content message threatening to carry out a mass taking pictures, authorities said.

In a press release Saturday, the Lee County Sheriff’s Workplace stated it had realized earlier that day of a "threatening textual content message" despatched by a scholar at an elementary college.

It mentioned its local college menace enforcement team was immediately notified and began investigating. The ten-year-old boy was interviewed and charged later with "making a written risk to conduct a mass shooting," the sheriff's office stated.

In video shared by authorities, the boy might be seen being led into a police car.

“This student’s behavior is sickening, particularly after the current tragedy in Uvalde, Texas,” Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno mentioned in a statement, noting that the menace got here simply days after the lethal faculty taking pictures at Robb Elementary Faculty left 19 students and two lecturers useless.

“Proper now isn't the time to behave like a little delinquent. It’s not funny,” he mentioned. “This baby made a faux menace, and now he’s experiencing actual penalties.”

Marceno said his workforce “didn’t hesitate one second...NOT ONE SECOND,” to analyze the incident.

The remark came as authorities in Uvalde face mounting criticism over their response to the Could 24 college taking pictures after it got here to mild that they waited roughly an hour for backup as a substitute of instantly shifting in on the gunman.

Chantal Da Silva is a breaking news editor for NBC News Digital based mostly in London.