Documents: Student faces charges in bomb threat

A 15-year-old Lake Central student arrested Friday for allegedly sending bomb threats over their phone at school had typed the threats — one racially charged — on their phone the week prior and is now facing 10 charges.

The student, whom the Post-Tribune is not naming because they are minor, had made a note saying, “I hate white people I’m shooting up this school tomorrow I’m the (expletive) in the unicorn headphones and blue T-shirt,” April 21, according to charging documents the Post-Tribune obtained Tuesday.

That note was allegedly airdropped from their iPhone to a second student implicated in the threats, records said.

On April 25, the student wrote “I set bombs in the school” and was again sent to the second student’s phone, records said. Then on May 1, a third note reading, “Bombing the school it will go off as soon as the end of the day bell rings this is not a joke” was Airdropped to the second phone, records said.

The messages St. John police and an FBI agent were called in to assist on found on the accused student’s phone matched nearly identically to the airdropped threats, according to the affidavit.

The incident occurred around 11:50 a.m. May 1 when at least two students received an airdropped message on their cellphones that read “bombing the school, it will go off as soon as the bell rings this is not a joke,” the release stated.

St. John police responded to the school along with bomb-sniffing K9 officers. No bomb was found during a thorough search of the school and students were dismissed early as a precaution while the investigation was underway, police said.

While reviewing footage from school security cameras, police noticed two students enter the classroom directly before the airdrop message was sent and the same pair were seen leaving right after the message was sent. School officials confirmed that neither

student was supposed to be in that particular class at the time, according to the release.

Police said they interviewed both students with their parents over the next two days and the parents provided the students’ cellphones as requested by police. When questioning the first student, they initially denied knowing anything but then became upset when police showed them screenshots of them and the other student implicated walking in and out of a room after the airdrops were sent, records said.

When the officer told them they knew the two were in the room when the airdrops were in sent and no others were sent when they weren’t in the room, the student started to cry and said the other student sent it, saying “it was a joke.”

Police then questioned the second student, who said they’d heard about the threats but didn’t know more than that. When the officer told them the other student said they were the one who sent the airdrop, the second student denied it and said they didn’t know why the first student said that because they thought they were friends, records said.

After getting visibly upset, the second student said the first student might have sent out the threats, but they didn’t see them doing it because they weren’t paying close attention, records said.

An FBI agent was called into assist police in analyzing data on the cellphones, and police said the forensic analysis determined that the airdrop message originated from one of the phones.

The teen was taken to the Lake County Juvenile Detention Center and faces three counts of level 5 felony intimidation; class A misdemeanor false informing; three counts of class B misdemeanor harassment; and three counts of class B misdemeanor disorderly conduct.

It was unclear Tuesday whether the case will be sent to adult court.