Your support helps us to tell the story
A sheriff in Florida made headlines after he followed through on a promise to publicize the images of minors who called in threats about school shootings.
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood named and shamed an 11-year-old boy who allegedly made written threats to carry out a mass shooting at the school. Deputies also filmed Carlo “Kingston” Dorelli doing a "perp walk" — where law enforcement leads an arrestee either to a police car or to a police station — and shared it online on Monday.
Chitwood stressed in the post that the hoax shooting threat cost the county tens of thousands of dollars.
"For you parents out there, today's hoax cost around $21,000," Chitwood said. "We're coming after you, and starting Monday... we're going to start publishing [your child's] face and doing perp walks with him when we take him into custody."
The children weren't the only ones he threatened to post online.
"Then we're going to show pictures of you, the parents," he said.
Chitwood said the boy had he filmed had written a list of names and targets for an alleged upcoming attack. When questioned, the boy allegedly said that the list was just a joke.
After the boy was arrested, the deputies found he had allegedly been keeping a trove of airsoft rifles, pistols, fake ammunition, knives, swords and other weapons at his home.
Chitwood made clear that if threats continue, the 11-year-old's experience would not be a one-time event.
"P.S. I can and will release the names and photos of juveniles who are committing these felonies, threatening our students, disrupting our schools and consuming law enforcement resources," he said.
The public had a mixed reaction to the sheriff’s tactics. Some praised law enforcement for not taking it easy on the kid, while others raised objections that plastering mugshots and perp walks over the internet would only encourage children to make more hoax threats.
“Parents already know the magnitude of this problem in our schools. I think cases like this should stop appearing in news and social media because you’re giving this young kid the spotlight and I feel like that’s what a lot of this kids are seeking for,” Chicago parent Alvaro Jimenz wrote in response to the boy’s mugshot. “Attention & being recognized for something.”
Dana Smith, a commenter who also saw the photo, argued that we cannot simply label a child a criminal and toss them aside.
“I pray officials find out what’s wrong. Where is the anger coming from? How is he being treated at school and at home? No child just does this! Don’t label him a criminal and then leave him that way. Parents are responsible but so is society! We’ve got to help these kids!” Smith wrote.
Claudine Fisher thought the punishment was just, and suggested that the boys parents be held accountable as well.
“Justice for all, no one is above it. The same goes for minors. Parents need to be held responsible and accountable. Prison time for sure,” she wrote in response to the photo.
Florida is far from the only state experiencing an influx of hoax shooting threats.
Springfield, Ohio, has recently experienced a spike in threats of questionable credibility thanks to Senator JD Vance's bogus and racist story about Haitian immigrants stealing and eating their neighbors' pets.
Georgia has also seen an uptick in hoax threats in the wake of the Apalachee High School shooting earlier this month.
Dr Ken Trump of the Ohio-based National School Safety and Security Services consulting firm, told Axios that the spike in hoax reports is actually a fairly common occurrence following a tragedy like the one at Apalachee High School.
"It fits what I've seen for four decades. After every high-profile shooting, you see an uptick for at least a week or two," he said. "There's a contagion effect where this spreads across the country."
Sharing the images of child hoaxers isn't new either, despite the renewed media attention in the topic.
In 2022, a 10-year-old boy Daniel Marquez in Florida was perp walked and prosecuted for making a similar school shooting threat.
In that case, Marquez claimed in a text to a friend that he had scammed another acquaintance out of a "trillion" dollars and had amassed an arsenal. He then insinuated he would put it to use during a forthcoming school event.
He was arrested, found delinquent and was sentenced to probation.
