Grady County teenager arrested for making threats at school – in connection with broader investigation

A wave of threats against schools may be linked to a 15-year-old boy in Grady County.

The sheriff's office arrested the teenager on Friday. He is accused of making threats at Minco schools last week. But the investigation is bringing much more to light now that the FBI is involved. “We will not tolerate this,” Sheriff Boggess said.

Grady County Sheriff Gary Boggess said the 15-year-old Minco High School student threatened the school twice last week. “The first threat was to shoot at the school,” Sheriff Boggess said.

Boggess said the teen even had a kill list. Then, on Tuesday, another threat, this time to blow up the school. Classes were canceled and bomb-sniffing dogs searched the building for explosives. “The bomb threat was a hoax, nothing was found,” he said.

However, Boggess said an investigation by the school's security officer turned up a tip. “They called and left a message on the school's voice recorder,” Sheriff Boggess said.

The number was traced to someone in Canada. “It's so easy these days with computers, game consoles and cell phones,” he said.

According to the sheriff, the 15-year-old boy spoofed the number of a Canadian man he met playing an online video game. He then allegedly used the number to make threats to Minco schools and was arrested Friday.

“We're definitely not going to stand for that,” said Sheriff Boggess. “This is a very serious matter, especially when it involves explosives and blowing things up and killing innocent people.”

Boggess said the teen may be connected to other threats made last week, including a threat of a school shooting in Moore that circulated on social media. “I was nervous and I'm sure everyone was nervous,” said Julia Taylor, who was waiting in line to pick up her grandson at Southmoore High School last week.

Moore police confirmed the threat was not credible. However, Boggess credits his SRO for trying to get to the bottom of these threats and working with other school districts in Oklahoma to find a connection. “He spent many hours last week working on this and researching all the background to follow up on the leads,” Sheriff Boggess said.

Boggess said the teen is still incarcerated in a juvenile hall and was previously on probation for similar threats last year. He now faces new charges in this case. “We're pretty fed up with this,” Sheriff Boggess said. “We're going to start filing charges and let the courts deal with these individuals who want to threaten our schools.”