12-year-old in custody in connection to high school menace

By Jason Wilson Last updated Jun 11, 2022

GREEN FIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) -A 12-year-old is in police custody after police said he posted a threat of violence against a Greenfield school on social media.

The situation is under control and there is no active threat, but especially given the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, police took the threat very seriously to make sure everyone was safe.

“It’s very important that we need to stress to parents and children, that if you see something, please say something,” explained acting Greenfield Police Chief William Gordon.

Gordon praised one parent and student for alerting authorities Friday morning after they saw a post that caused concern.

“We received a report of a parent whose child noticed on a social account a specific threat towards the Greenfield Middle School,” explained Gordon.

Gordon said parents and families were notified by the district. Police believe the post was made around 11 Thursday night and they were informed of it shortly after 7:00 Friday morning.

“We put our investigators on it and we found that the child was on the way to Chicopee on a school bus,” said Gordon.

he said they worked closely with Chicopee’s Police Department, who was able to detain the 12-year-old until officers were able to go pick him up and bring him back to Greenfield. Police said the suspect was arrested without incident and both he and his parents are cooperating with police.

“While it is the preference of the Greenfield Police Department to not arrest 12-year-old children, in this particular case we thought it was necessary to interfere with any type of plans that may have been made and to properly investigate it as rapidly as possible,” Gordon said.

That suspect is now facing a single felony count.

Gordon said police worked closely with Greenfield’s superintendent to monitor the situation. Out of an abundance of caution, Greenfield Police officers remained at the school for the rest of the day. Gordon said there is no active threat to the school community.