Threat of School Shooting in Providence Reported - Police Say Related to TikTok Challenge
GoLocalProv News Team
Threat of School Shooting in Providence Reported - Police Say Related to TikTok Challenge
Providence Police Major David Lapatin told GoLocal that they investigated the threat -- and that it appears to be related to the latest Tik-Tok challenge.
As GoLocal reported earlier in October, the TikTok challenge “Devious Licks” has hit Rhode Island Schools and is sparking vandalism."
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About Incident
On Monday, police responded to a home on Harold Street off of Chalkstone Avenue, where they met with a woman who said her son showed her a disturbing message on his phone.
Police spoke with the juvenile, who said he saw a message on SnapChat that mentioned someone shooting the principal at his school.
According to police, the message from an unknown phone said the following, “I hate Ms. Onye (Principal of Gilbert Stuart Middle School) … On Friday, October 29, I am going to take my dad’s shotgun and shoot her…after that I will go into my first period class and shoot it up."
Police reported that they also received a call from an individual on Elmwood Avenue regarding being made aware of the same message.
The information was forwarded to the Youth Service Bureau and Providence police detectives investigated.
"We’re investigating and it seems like there is no substance [to the threat]," said Lapatin. "It appears to be TiKTok related. We’ve spoken with the parties involved and anticipate that the Department of Education will be releasing a statement shortly."