Massachusetts 12-year-old arrested after threat of mass shooting at middle school

Police detectives have arrested a 12-year-old Massachusetts middle school student in connection with a mass shooting threat at Coakley Middle School in Norwood on Friday.

According to police, the incident began Friday morning when the Norwood Police Department received information that a group text had warned of a shooting to take place at the school. The original information was in the form of a screenshot that cropped the beginning of the message. Police later learned that the cropped portion of the message was warning of an event to occur Monday. One of the numbers in the group text was of unknown origin, while the others were students. Officers began questioning the other students to see if they could help identify the number.

Uniformed and plainclothes officers were sent to the middle school and high school to provide additional security.

The text message contained some details which led detectives to believe that the person who sent it had some knowledge of the middle school. By the same token, other parts of the message contained passing references to an “army” and alluded to the motive having to do with an event 17 years ago, that was not otherwise explained. The message also warned that the phone number being used could not be traced.

Detectives immediately began working to identify the source of the number. Although an effort had been made to mask its origin, detectives soon traced sufficient information and believed they had identified the source of the text.

By 10:30 a.m., detectives were certain that they had identified the student who sent the message, and in fact spoke with the student briefly by phone. The student was traveling out of state with family at the time.

The Norwood Public Schools released information to Coakley families twice Friday morning, and the Norwood Police Department posted to their website early that afternoon that they considered the threat to not be credible but released no details about our investigation.

By Sunday, the student and family had returned to Norwood. Detectives obtained and executed a search warrant for the student’s home seizing a cell phone and arresting the student. The student confessed in the presence of the family. There were no firearms in the student’s home. The student will not be in school Monday.

During Friday’s investigation a subsequent text began to circulate to the effect that the high school was next. It was spoofed to appear that it came from the original number, but police have verified through the provider that it did not.