12-year-old arrested for alleged shooting threat at Amsterdam school

AMSTERDAM, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- A 12-year-old has been arrested for allegedly making a school shooting threat towards Wilbur H. Lynch Literacy Academy in the City of Amsterdam. The student was charged with making a terroristic threat, which is a felony.

On Monday around 6 a.m., the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office was notified of the school shooting threat by a parent whose child was sent the threat on social media. Since the school was in the City of Amsterdam, the Amsterdam Police Department was contacted and they stationed officers at the school.

The threat said there would be a shooting at the school. Police said more messages were sent from the social media user claiming that three people specifically would be targeted.

After an investigation, police found that the person responsible for the social media profile and the threatening messages was one of the people to be supposedly targeted. Police believe the suspect did this to try and evade suspicion of themselves.

The suspect did confess to being the person who created the profile and the threatening messages, said police. The threat was also deemed not credible.

The juvenile was processed and released having been referred to the Montgomery County Probation Department for appearance at a later date.

In the last two months, Amsterdam Police have made four arrests of juveniles over three different incidents involving threats to the Greater Amsterdam School District.