State of Florida
Students report suspicious Snapchat messages – and prevent the university massacre at the last minute
“A tragedy could have happened today”: Police chief Jakari Young reported at a press conference about the alleged massacre that had been prevented
© Daytona Beach Police Department
The alleged assassin was about to set off: the Florida police stopped a 19-year-old who apparently wanted to commit a massacre at a university. The reference to the man came from two attentive students.
Florida police arrested a student alleged to have committed a massacre at a university in the Daytona Beach area. The 19-year-old threatened an attack similar to the 1999 attack on Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, in which 13 people were killed. said Police Chief Jakari Young of the Daytona Beach Police Department on Thursday (local time).
The young man was arrested on Thursday morning, the last day before the winter break at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, immediately after leaving his home, Young said. He had a backpack with a collapsible, semi-automatic rifle with him. In addition, there were several boxes of 9 mm ammunition, five loaded magazines with 17 rounds each, an extended magazine with 32 rounds and a telescopic sight.
Students report suspicious chat messages
The police got on the trail of the 19-year-old thanks to a tip from two other students. The two had reported disturbing news to the security department at the Aviation University, which they had seen in a group chat. “It was news from a Snapchat group that you were a member of and they were very concerned about what was being shared on that Snapchat group chat,” Young said at a press conference.
“Items found on the suspect”: a collapsible, semi-automatic 9mm rifle, several hundred rounds of ammunition and a telescopic sight
© Daytona Beach Police Department
At 4.10 a.m. in the early morning, the university’s security service passed the notice on to the police. This then sealed off the area around the suspect’s apartment in Daytona Beach and arrested him at around 9:30 a.m. when he came out, the police chief reported. The 19-year-old had planned to go to a shooting range to practice there and then make his way to the campus.
This is what it looks like when the US gun lobby hosts a fashion show
7 images
“Today is the last day, today is the final exams. So that was all part of the plan because today the campus will be full because everyone has to take their final exams there,” said Young. “Tragedy could have happened today.” It was a stroke of luck that the two students reported their concerns. “By the grace of God these two students showed up and foiled this plan.”
19-year-old apparently threatened to fail
The 19-year-old is in police custody and is said to have confessed to the threats. “He might say it was all a joke and he didn’t mean it. But we don’t think it’s funny to discuss a mass shooting on campus,” said Young. The suspect wrote, among other things, “I did my shopping for school”, referring to the weapon that was later discovered in his backpack. In another post he announced that “as soon as he was finished on the shooting range, he would go to campus to host a Columbine”.
The suspect would be charged with written threats of injury or death, terrorism and first-degree attempted murder, according to a statement from the Daytona Police Department. The 19-year-old’s motive is still being investigated, “but we learned that he was in danger of failing ERAU and that he was summoned to campus yesterday for a traffic violation.”
Police Chief Young Young said the students who saw the 19-year-old’s Snapchat messages first gave police a chance to intervene in time. This would have shown the importance of an important rule of conduct: “When you see something, say something!”
Sources: Daytona Beach Police Department, “Daytona Beach News-Journal”, “Miami Herald”