Athens boy threatened shootings at three middle schools

By Joe Johnson

A 12-year-old Athens boy has been arrested for making school gun threats online.

The arrest was made on Thursday, a day after after 14-year-old Colt Gray went on a shooting spree at Apalachee High School in Winder, killing four people and injuring nine others.

The boy was charged with making terroristic threats and remanded for detention to the Department of Juvenile Justice.

According to Athens-Clarke County police, the investigation began after they began receiving calls regarding threatening social media posts.

“Athen middle schools be ready, hug yall love ones,” the post said. “coile, bbl, hilsman next.”

The posts included images of firearms with names of schools in Clarke County, police said, at which time “detectives and crime analysts identified the account and located the suspect.”

It was determined that the boy did not possess any weapons, police said, and the images of guns that he posted had been obtained from the internet.