Teen Charged for Making Threats Towards Buffalo Elementary School

Days after a 15-year-old student at McKinley High School was stabbed by a fellow student, who is facing assault and weapons charges, two other teenagers have been arrested and are facing charges after making a threat towards a kindergarten class. 

The Buffalo Police Department said that the local FBI office received notification of a threat posted on Discord on August 27, suggesting the poster would shoot a kindergarten class at an unspecified school. Police believe this was an isolated threat. 

Buffalo police, with the support of the local FBI office, secured an Extreme Risk Protection Order, including a search provision, that gave them permission to search the house in the 900 block of Sycamore Street, identified from the Discord post. 

During the search, they found a loaded gun with five rounds of ammunition in it, in addition to other ammunition in the house. The gun obtained in the search matched the gun featured in the social media post, and the bedding in the background of the social media post matched that of a 15-year-old who lived at the same address. 

The gun is owned by the 15-year-old’s brother. 

Buffalo police said the 15-year-old, whose name is not being released because he is a juvenile under the law, is facing charges of making a threat of mass harm. He is a student within Buffalo Public Schools, but the police did not elaborate on which school he attends.

During the search, police also found 14 pounds of marijuana in a separate bedroom, for which the teenager’s brother was charged with one count of criminal possession of cannabis and one count of failure to safely store firearms. He was arraigned, released, and is due in court on September 30. 

The 15-year-old will appear in Family Court at a later date. 

Mark Grimm, assistant special agent in charge for Buffalo’s FBI field office, encourages people to report any social media post that contains a threat against any school or public building. 

“Keeping people safe and saving lives is our number one priority, he said. “The FBI and Buffalo Police Department take all these threats extremely seriously.”