A North Carolina teen who threatened on social media to shoot third-graders for insulting his mom claimed it was all a joke, police said.
Isaiah David Napier, 18, of Wake Forest, is charged with making a false report concerning mass violence on educational property, WSOC reported.
Napier was being held in the Wake County Detention Center. His first court appearance was scheduled for Tuesday. A representative from the Wake County Sheriff’s Office was not immediately available for comment Wednesday.
Cops arrested Napier after someone stumbled across one of the teen’s Snapchat posts that “showed what appeared to be a large caliber automatic assault rifle, which was later found to be an airsoft gun, which is similar to paintball guns,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release Monday.
In the Snapchat post, Napier reportedly threatened to shoot third-graders at Jones Dairy Elementary School for calling his mom gay, according to warrants obtained by ABC11.
“They immediately took steps to call the authorities for us to step in to invest. That’s the kind of community support we need to have,” said Eric Curry from the Wake County Sheriff’s Office.
“Any threat against school property and children of this county will be taken seriously no matter what your age and no matter the intent,” Curry explained.
Jones Dairy Elementary SchoolJones Dairy Elementary PTAA parent, who did not wish to be identified, told ABC11 he didn’t think the Snapchat threat was justified, but that the third-graders were in the wrong as well.
“I don’t think we need to be threatening each other but, then again, I don’t think third-graders need to be, you know, bashing people either,” said the parent.
“We need to teach our children to be kind. We need to tolerate different ideas. I mean, that’s just the way it is. We need to stop the hate.”
Students at Jones Dairy Elementary School have faced threats of violence before. Police arrested Arthur Kochetkov, 33, of Wake Forest, in September after he wrote on Facebook that he “amassed an army big enough to slaughter all your Wake Forest kids in their local playground,” according to court records obtained by the News & Observer.
