13-year-old arrested in school threats case

Police in Los Angeles said Friday that they arrested a 13-year-old boy suspected of threatening to shoot students at his middle school and seized an assault-style rifle with a high-capacity magazine during a search of his house.

When officers took the boy into custody, police said, they found a hand-drawn map of Animo Mae Jemison Charter Middle School in south Los Angeles and a list containing names of students and staff members.

Along with the boy, police arrested a 19-year-old male family member on a charge of possession of an unregistered firearm and confiscated about 100 rounds of ammunition, according to the Los Angeles County sheriff’s office.

The arrests are the latest effort by authorities to get ahead of a rash of school shooting threats that have rattled the Los Angeles region in the days since a 16-year-old student opened fire on his classmates at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita on Nov. 14, killing two and wounding three others. In the past week, police have arrested several teenagers on suspicion of threatening schools in the area and have investigated multiple reports of threats, some of which were found not to be credible.

At least one student who was arrested, a 17-year-old in Riverside, Calif., was found with ammunition, according to police. Another teenager was arrested after posting pictures of himself on social media posing with a gun and bullets, and talking about a possible attack at a high school in Palmdale, police said.

“We’ve received a series of threats from the Saugus shooting forward to today, and we’ve acted on all of them,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said at a news conference Friday.

The 13-year-old’s suspected threats came to light when other students overheard him talking about gunning down his schoolmates, according to police. The students immediately told teachers, who notified the sheriff’s office.

“In this case, the fact that people stepped forward and said what they had heard led us to be able to prevent a tragedy today,” Villanueva said. “We have to have information to act.”

Police declined to name the boy or his 19-year-old relative. Sgt. Robert Boese told the Los Angeles Times that the adult suspect will appear in court Tuesday and will likely face “a myriad of weapons-related charges.”

Interviews led officers to the boy’s house Thursday.

During their search, officers seized an AR-15 rifle along with the high-capacity magazine and ammunition, according to Villanueva. The gun was unregistered, but it had a serial number, he said, differentiating it from the so-called ghost gun without a registration number used in the Saugus High School shooting.

“We’re trying to determine the origin of it,” Villanueva said.