A 20-year-old man who made finger guns outside of an elementary school as part of a TikTok challenge could be facing up to ten years in prison.
Joel Edwards, from St Clair Shores, Michigan, was already on probation for a separate crime when he was arrested.
FBI agents reported his social media accounts to state police on September 13, after videos linked to his account allegedly expressed a desire to carry out a mass shooting.
SCS Police carried out a welfare check of his home, where they allegedly discovered weapons, according to a public statement from Peter Lucido, the Macomb County Prosecutor.
However, Edward’s mother, Rebekah, has branded the situation as a misunderstanding.
"I think that he was trying to be an actor and he was mimicking characters that were not good role models for him, like Patrick Bateman and Walter White,” she told WXYZ. “He goes through these episodes where he wants to be like these actors."
"It's just been really hard to deal with all of this because he needs help and he's not getting the help he needs from the place he's at," she added.
According to Fox 2, investigators allegedly said that Edwards had recorded the video outside of Masonic Heights Elementary School.
Local residents told WXYZ that the incident has left them frightened for their own safety and that of their children.
“So it being right here in our backyard, it put a sense of fear in me that I've never had in the community before," Jessica Frye said.
"He lives way too close to the school,” she continued. “So if he does get out and he lives there, he's so close to it. He's close to our house."
Edwards is being held on a $5 million bond.
He has been charged with using a computer to commit a crime; intentional threat to commit an act of violence against a school with specific intent to carry out or overt act toward; and felony firearm charges, according to the prosecutor’s statement.
Collectively, he could be facing ten years behind bars if he is found guilty.
If he successfully posts bail, he will be required to wear a GPS tether and will be subjected to home confinement. He will also be banned from having any contact with a school student or from contacting any school official.
In his statement, Lucido confirmed that there was no ongoing threat to the public but branded the case as “deeply disturbing.”
Edwards is scheduled for a probable cause conference on December 16 and a preliminary exam on December 19, before proceedings go further.
