Deputies: Boy, 12, arrested after writing threat that he would ‘start little by little killing people’

POMPANO BEACH — Students at Crystal Lakes Middle School were on edge Tuesday after one concerned student saw and warned others of a threat that people at school would be killed.

Broward Sheriff ’s Office deputies arrested a 12-yearold boy Tuesday on charges of making written threats to kill after a school resource deputy investigated the threat and found the student who wrote it, the Sheriff ’s Office said.

The student’s “detailed plan” threatened to “infiltrate the school from all entrances” and “start little by little killing people,” according to the Sheriff ’s Office. The boy has been taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center.

Deputies did not find any weapons at the middle school.

Since the start of the school year, school officials in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties reported seeing an increase in the number of threats against schools, the South Florida Sun Sentinel previously reported.

Sheriff Gregory Tony told the Sun Sentinel in December that the Sheriff ’s Office was seeing a “consistent pattern” of students writing threats online toward their schools and emphasized that the threats are not taken lightly, despite some students thinking the threats won’t be taken seriously.

In recent months, numerous South Florida students have been arrested for making written threats toward schools:

■ Three Silver Trail Middle School students.

■ A 14-year-old Pompano Beach Middle School student.

■ A 17-year-old Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student who wrote he ‘felt like school shooting.’

■ A 15-year-old South Broward High School student who posted a photo to Snapchat of what appeared to be a gun and wrote “abouta shoot up a school.” The gun was plastic.

Several other minor students have recently been arrested after they were found to have guns on campus:

■ A 16-year-old Coconut Creek High School student who hid the gun on campus outside.

■ A 16-year-old Northeast High School student who had a loaded gun in his bag.

■ A 17-year-old Miramar High School student who had a loaded, stolen gun in his bag.