Teen Arrested After Sending Gun Pictures, Making Shooting Threat At Utica School

A local teen who allegedly threatened a shooting at a Utica middle school and shared photos of guns is now facing felony level charges.

Utica Police say following the arrest that at no point why the school or any students in danger, and said the two guns included in the photo were both BB guns.

UPD officials say they were first made aware of the threat late last week, at around 12:30 a.m. on Friday morning (4/28). Investigators say one of the parties involved in a group chat with the suspect reported the threat of violence and shared several screenshots from the conversation. That threat of violence was to commit a shooting a the school.

UPD officials went to the teenagers home to investigate. It has resulted in the unnamed teen being charged with Making a Terroristic Threat, a class D felony under New York State law. Identifying information is being withheld by police because he is a juvenile.

Officials say they did seize the two BB guns that were included in the photograph that accompanied the threat.

Police did not mention the city middle school involved in the threat. The school district has two such schools, John F. Kennedy in North Utica and Donovan Middle School in West Utica.

[AUTHOR'S NOTE: This post is for informational purposes. The information provided within was provided publicly by law enforcement. Any charges or accusations of wrongdoing mentioned in the article are only allegations and the reader is reminded that all persons are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.]