Santa Ana teen threatened to shoot classmates on ‘hit list,’ police say
A 16-year-old student at a Santa Ana charter school has been arrested on suspicion of threatening to carry out a campus attack and shoot students he had named on a “hit list.”
The threat, police said, was made in an email to a former girlfriend.
The NOVA Academy Early College High School sophomore wrote that he was going to recruit other students to help him carry out the attack, Santa Ana police said in a statement.
He didn’t threaten his ex-girlfriend, police said, but did say he was tired of being bullied.
The school’s principal called the Santa Ana Police Department about 7 p.m. Monday after the student’s former girlfriend reported the email.
Officers said they spoke with the student, whose name was not released because of his age, and were able to get the names of the students he had threatened.
There were at least 10 students on the list, said Santa Ana Police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna. Investigators didn’t find any weapons at the student’s Santa Ana home.
Still, Bertagna said police are treating the threat seriously.
The student was arrested and placed in juvenile hall. Santa Ana police also obtained an emergency restraining order on behalf of the school and the ex-girlfriend.
The families of students who may have been on the hit list were contacted Monday afternoon about the threat.
School administrators said they would have an armed guard on campus from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday until at least April 11.
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