Teen accused of fake bomb threats against Corona and Las Vegas schools

Federal and local authorities arrested a teenage boy in Colorado, alleging he was behind a spate of “swatting” attacks, or false threats, to schools in the Inland Empire and Las Vegas.

FBI agents and the Colorado Springs Police Department took the boy into custody after raiding his home Tuesday, according to a statement released Wednesday by the FBI. His identity has been withheld because he is under the age of 18, officials said.

The boy allegedly called the Corona Police Department on Sept. 8, informing dispatchers that he had placed two bombs in backpacks hidden in Centennial High School, police said. He vowed to detonate the explosives in the morning, Corona police Sgt. Paul Mercado said.

Police and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department descended on the school, sweeping each room to track down the reported bombs. None were found, Mercado said. As a precaution, the Corona Norco Unified School District canceled school for the day. The same threat was made on Sept. 9, but the school didn’t close, Mercado said.

Investigators with the FBI and Corona police traced the threats to the boy’s Colorado Springs home, police said. El Paso County prosecutors, whose jurisdiction includes Colorado Springs, are reviewing the case and have not filed charges, according to the FBI.

Corona officials have promised to recoup the costs of the faux bomb threat and subsequent investigation, including $21,000 incurred by the Police Department, Mercado said. The school district said the costs of closing the school and hiring additional security totaled about $20,000.

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The chief of the Corona Police Department, Mike Abel, said the costs were necessary to protect student safety.

“The Corona Police Department takes threats to our schools very seriously and will devote all necessary resources to investigating threats to their full potential so that people who engage in these crimes can be held accountable,” Abel said.

The FBI said the boy is behind similar swatting attacks on high schools in Las Vegas. It’s unclear how the boy selected the schools that he allegedly threatened.

“We don’t know how he chooses those schools,” Mercado said, “or what his connection to the schools are.”

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