Long Island Teen Boy Arrested For Alleged Online Terrorist Threat To School

A14-year-old Long Island student was charged with making a terrorist threat. He allegedly posted a threat on social media.

Suffolk County Police arrested the teen after he allegedly made the school threat on Thursday night, reported TBR Newsmedia.

Daily Voice Suffolk reported that the male student made the threat against R.C. Murphy Junior High School in Stony Brook. He stated that he was going to bring weapons to the school, which is located at 351 Oxhead Road, Stony Brook, and harm teachers as well as students.

An investigation was carried out after which Sixth Squad detectives arrested the teen at his residence. The juvenile was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital for evaluation. On Friday, he was charged with making a terrorist threat. He was arraigned at Family Court in Central Islip. During the investigation, weapons of any kind were not found in the teen’s home.

Superintendent Kevin Scanlon said in an email to district parents that the district was notified of the threatening post. The Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD) were also notified about it. Scanlon said that their district will continue to "cooperate with the members of law enforcement."

He noted that they will take appropriate disciplinary and legal action against the "party responsible in accordance with our Code of Conduct and New York State Law, respectively.” According to Scanlon, SCPD was at the junior high school throughout the day on Friday.

In a separate incident, a man from Rossmoor, California admitted to sending death threats to Merriam-Webster employees, reported New York Daily News. The threats over the dictionary’s definition of gender were made in a vicious anti-trans rant. They forced the company to temporarily close its offices in Massachusetts and New York for five days almost a year ago.

Earlier this month, Jeremy David Hanson, 34, pleaded guilty to making threats to commit anti-LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) violence against several individuals and businesses. They included New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the Walt Disney Company. He was arrested in April, and then was indicted by a grand jury two months later.

In U.S. District Court in Springfield, he pleaded guilty to one count of interstate communication of threatening communications to commit violence, a federal crime. Hanson also pleaded guilty to another count charging the same offense. It had been initially filed in the Eastern District of Texas. He targeted the President of the University of North Texas.

Authorities said that in early October 2021, staff members at the Merriam-Webster’s headquarters in Springfield got many threatening messages and hateful comments. They showed clear anti-transgender bias. The criminal complaint revealed that on Oct. 2, Hanson allegedly used the handle “@anonYmous” to post a comment on the dictionary’s website definition of “female.”

He wrote that it is absolutely sickening that "Merriam-Webster now tells blatant lies and promotes anti-science propaganda. There is no such thing as ‘gender identity.’" He further wrote that the "imbecile who wrote this entry should be hunted down and shot.” In another message that was shared via the “contact us” page, he allegedly threatened to “bomb your offices for lying.”

Hanson's sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 5, 2023.