C.J. Gish
A 15-year-old Buchholz High School student was arrested Monday for allegedly making an online threat that she was going to commit a mass shooting.
According to an Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) release, deputies arrested Sta’Nicia Brown and charged her for making a written or electronic threat of a mass shooting, making a false report of use of a firearm in a violent manner, and for unlawful use of a two-way communication device.
The ACSO Combined Communication Center started receiving reports on Friday evening of an Instagram post stating that the account holder was going to “shoot the school up” and mentioned Buchholz.
“Don’t come to school Monday if you aint tryna die,” the post said.
ACSO detectives investigated the incident and discovered the Instagram post had been created earlier on Friday. Detectives contacted Instagram’s parent company, Meta Platform, Inc., and information obtained from Meta led them to Brown’s home.
When detectives went to Brown’s residence, they “learned that Brown had been home all day with her cellular phone, but that she denied any involvement with the Instagram account or the threatening post made from the account,” according to the ACSO release.
Brown consented to a search of her phone, where detectives discovered the Instagram account that had been used to make the threatening message.
The detectives arrested Brown, who denied any involvement in the incident.
The 2022-23 school year remains much quieter with school violence threats than the 2021-22 school year in both Alachua County and in North Central Florida.
In 2021-23, 20 bomb or mass shooting false threats were received throughout the Alachua County Public Schools district.
Columbia, Bradford and Gilchrist counties also received false threats in the 2021-22 school year, along with Santa Fe College.