Police arrested a 36-year-old Arizona man for allegedly posting mass shooting and terrorist threats online.
The Flagstaff Police Department says it received reports of threatening posts made by Justin Wayne Hill on multiple school, government and business Yelp review platforms on Sept. 13, 2024.
Coconino Community College was one of the schools involved in the investigation. It decided to close all three campus locations due to a safety concern.
After police were made aware of Hill's comments online, an arrest warrant was issued for the 36-year-old, and he was arrested in Bozeman, Montana on Sunday.
Police did not announced charges against Hill. He lives in Ash Fork, about 50 miles west of Flagstaff.
In recent weeks, law enforcement across the nation has been on high alert amid a surge of mass shootings threats made on the internet.
In May, a 15-year-old in Maryland was accused of allegedly making bomb threats online. He was charged in late August with multiple felonies, including threats of mass violence, making a false statement and extortion.
According to the Montgomery County Police Department, the teen allegedly worked with a 12-year-old boy from Pennsylvania to call in the threats to Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, prompting the school to go into lockdown.
A SWAT team and K-9 units responded to the school, but a search of the campus turned up no explosives. The two underage kids also allegedly made threats to Waltman Whitman High School and Bethesda Elementary School the next day, according to police.
Following a Sept. 4 shooting at a Georgia high school that left four dead, Florida school districts have also heightened their attention after violent threats have been made in several counties across the state.
The Escambia County Sheriff's Office arrested an 11-year-old girl in connection with threats made on Sept. 13. She was charged with written or electronic threats to conduct a mass shooting, a second-degree felony, according to an ECSO Facebook post.
Elsewhere in Florida, a 13-year-old student from Griffin Middle School, in Tallahassee, was arrested on Sept. 12 after a loaded handgun and what was suspected to be cocaine were found in his backpack.
The arrest of the 13-year-old boy marked the fifth incident of weapons on school grounds in the first month of the new school year.
Consequences for making online threats
Making threats of violence on social media platforms and in the internet can come with pretty severe consequences. In Florida, for instance, the second-degree felony can be punishable with up to 15 years in prison, up to 15 years of probation and a $10,000 fine.
When it comes to school, the Columbia County Sheriff's Office says students will likely be expelled from school and have a threat assessment, which hurts their future educational endeavors.
