New details emerge after 15-year-old charged with making threats at Southwind High School

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) – A Nashville teenager has been arrested and charged with making threats against Southwind High School in Memphis.

The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI assisted the Shelby County Sheriff's Office in identifying and locating the 15-year-old, who was taken into custody within 36 hours of the incident on Wednesday.

Investigators said the threats against Southwind sparked additional threats against at least a dozen other schools in Memphis Shelby County, prompting a countywide lockdown. SCSO Sheriff Floyd Bonner told Action News 5 his detectives worked through the night to obtain an arrest warrant for the teen. Bonner said the young man made several phone calls to the school and posted a message on Instagram declaring his intent to go on a shooting rampage at the school.

Deputy Police Chief Anthony Buckner said the SCSO will make it clear to the Memphis Juvenile Court that this young man caused chaos and cost the county a lot of money as it had to dedicate personnel and resources to investigate the threats and protect numerous campuses throughout Shelby County.

“Currently, we have obtained a warrant for threatening mass violence at a school,” Buckner said. “Our role and responsibility now is to bring him back to Memphis and transfer him to juvenile court. There, hopefully in the next day or two, he will face Judge Sugarmon and his team, who will determine whether he should remain in jail or be released to his parents until the case is resolved.”

Chief Buckner said his detectives drove the suspect to Memphis on Thursday evening.

He will be held at the Shelby County Youth Detention and Education Center. What punishment he faces is unknown.

Previously, Superintendent Dr. Marie Feagins confirmed in a Facebook Live video that 60,000 MSCS families did not receive the district's emergency call during the crisis and another 130,000 never received the emergency text message.

“We've been talking to the company,” Dr. Feagins said, “to find out if it's a technical difficulty, if it's something… an opportunity for the company to work on… or if it's a human error on our side? Are we trying to send too many messages?”

School communications company Final sitesaid in a statement to Action News 5:

Superintendent Feagins also said that six arrests have now been made in connection with the threats against schools on Wednesday.

The Nashville teenager was arrested in the Southwind High case. Five others are from Memphis, including three Whitehaven students arrested after an incident at that school on Wednesday and another student arrested Thursday for falsely pulling the fire alarm.

On Thursday, more threats occurred that disrupted classes. Freedom Prep closed all campuses, officials said. Crosstown High and the University Schools, run by the University of Memphis, switched to remote learning.

One final note: MSCS still does not have a security chief.

George Harris, hired by the district in August, resigned after four days citing personal reasons. Action News 5 reached out to MSCS to inquire about his successor and did not receive a response by our deadline.

Action News 5 keeps you up to date.

Click here to subscribe to our newsletter!

Click here to report a spelling or grammatical error. Please include the heading.

All rights reserved.