Newsome Student Charged After Posting Threatening Photo Online

LITHIA, FL -- A 15-year-old Newsome High School student has been arrested for implying on a social media site that he had an assault rifle and warning students to stay away from school.

Around 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 31, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office learned that someone had posted a photo of a teen posing with what looked like an assault rifle on the social media site, SnapChat. A caption beneath the photo warned, "Don't come to school tomorrow."

The sheriff's office said the photo was shared a number of times on SnapChat, making it difficult to learn the identity of the person who posted it originally. During their investigation, however, deputies were led to a ninth-grader at Newsome. When they went to his home, the student and the parents showed the deputies that the weapon the teen was holding in the photo was an Airsoft rifle designed to shoot plastic or resin pellets, not an assault rifle. The student said he posted the photo on SnapChat as a joke and said he never intended to bring the gun to school or harm anyone.

The teen was arrested for falsely threatening to use a firearm in a violent manner, a second-degree felony.

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