Teen charged in shooting threat that closed Rainier Beach High School
SEATTLE – A 17-year-old boy has been charged with threatening to shoot up a Rainier Beach High School basketball game he thought his ex-girlfriend would attend, prompting officials to cancel the game and classes the next day.
The teen was arrested Dec. 15 at an Auburn, Washington, hotel and charged Tuesday in King County Juvenile Court with two counts of felony harassment. One count is for threatening to kill his former girlfriend of two years, and the second is for threatening to injure or kill staff and students at the Seattle school, according to charging papers.
He was also charged with threats to bomb or injure property, unlawful possession of a firearm, and malicious mischief.
Prosecutors said he made the threat to an unknown third party after his ex-girlfriend, also 17, broke up with him because he started hanging out with “gangsters.”
The teen pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges at his arraignment Wednesday, and a judge ordered him to remain in juvenile detention, according to Douglas Wagoner, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office. The judge also issued a protection order barring the teen from having any contact with his ex-girlfriend, Wagoner said.
The Seattle Times is not naming the 17-year-old boy because the newspaper does not identify juveniles unless they’re charged as adults.
The teen’s ex-girlfriend was a student at Rainier Beach but “was recently removed from the school,” according to charging papers, which don’t disclose why she was removed. Her ex-boyfriend believed she would attend a Dec. 13 basketball game and threatened to shoot up the school, according to the charges.
“The threat caused such alarm at Rainier Beach that they canceled the basketball game on the 13th and canceled school on the 14th,” a Seattle police detective wrote in charging papers. “The school has since requested that additional marked Seattle Police Department units be stationed at the school for the safety of the students and to prevent (the teen) from carrying out his threat.”
Eight minutes after Seattle police were notified of the threat, officers responded to a nearby house where the teen’s ex-girlfriend had been hanging out with friends, the charges say. The teenagers heard glass breaking and saw large rocks outside three shattered windows at the front of the house, according to charging papers. A neighbor saw a car drive off that matched the appearance of the silver Kia Optima the 17-year-old was known to drive, according to the charges.
Charging papers include screenshots of threatening text messages the teen allegedly sent his ex-girlfriend as well as Instagram photos of him posing with firearms, including a group photo of young people flashing gang signs with handguns piled at their feet.
Police found a handgun and drum magazine in the teen’s backpack after they arrested him at the Auburn hotel, the charges say.