Teen Sent Bomb Threat To South Jersey School: Police

EGG HARBOR TWP., NJ — A 16-year-old Chinese exchange student living in Brooklyn on a revoked visa emailed a bomb threat to an Atlantic County school in September, police said.

On Sept. 11, the Atlantic Christian School in Egg Harbor Township told police they had received a bomb threat via email, according to a news release.

The email named a specific location where the sender claimed to have set the bomb, police said. The entire school was immediately searched and nothing suspicious was found.

Out of an "abundance of caution," the school was additionally searched with a bomb-sniffing dog, and no explosives were found, police said.

The email's sender identified himself in said email, according to police. Investigation revealed that he was living in Brooklyn, NY, and was an exchange student from China currently in the United States on a revoked visa, police said. Homeland Security confirmed to Egg Harbor Township police that the teen's visa had been revoked after he was no longer enrolled in the private school he previously attended.

This was not the first time the 16-year-old had threatened to commit violence at a school, just the first time he had done so at an Egg Harbor Township school, police said. He had sent multiple emails over the course of a few days, according to police.

Egg Harbor Township police traveled to New York to confiscate the teen's electronic devices.

He was charged with several counts of creating false public alarm and terroristic threats, and was lodged in the Ocean County Youth Detention Center awaiting a court date. In addition, Homeland Security has secured a detainer on the teen as he has been threatening acts of violence while here on a revoked visa, police said.

"We are hopeful that this juvenile will receive the assistance that he needs, but can also confidently say that this intervention and arrest was necessary to stop further acts of threatened violence," police said.