Teenager Arrested for Alleged E-Mail Threats

A 14-year-old Camarillo High School freshman was arrested Wednesday for allegedly sending threatening e-mails to two teachers, authorities said.

It was the second time in a week that someone has been arrested for allegedly using the Internet to threaten teachers or students in the Oxnard Union High School District, authorities said.

“Given the immediacy of the threats, we worked quickly to identify and apprehend the author,” said Eric Nishimoto, a spokesman for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

Detectives declined to say if the e-mails contained death threats or references to the school shooting in Santee in which a 15-year-old boy allegedly killed two classmates.

“Regardless of what happens elsewhere in the country, every time a threat like this is reported to us we apply as many resources as possible because we take this very, very seriously,” Nishimoto said.

Deputies arrested the Camarillo High teen as he was leaving an after-school class at the campus on Mission Oaks Boulevard, Nishimoto said.

The teen was being held at Ventura County Juvenile Hall on suspicion of making terrorist threats and was expected to make a court appearance today, authorities said.

The targeted teachers, only one of whom had been teaching the suspect this semester, told school administrators they had each received an anonymous threat in their campus e-mail accounts, Nishimoto said.

One teacher discovered the e-mail late Tuesday while checking school correspondence from a home computer and the other found the e-mail after arriving on campus Wednesday morning. Authorities believe the e-mail was sent about 9 p.m. Tuesday.

“[The threats] were explicit in so far as they were direct threats of physical violence against these teachers,” Nishimoto said.

Camarillo High officials called deputies about 11:30 a.m., and the case was forwarded to the department’s intelligence unit, which worked with the local FBI office to crack the case, Nishimoto said.

The investigation led authorities to the boy’s home on Flora Vista Avenue in Camarillo, Nishimoto said.

After the boy’s arrest, deputies searched his family’s home, where he lives with his parents and a stepsister, and confiscated several items. A motive has not been established.

A neighbor said the boy is well-liked but had gotten into trouble recently for using a key to vandalize a car in the neighborhood.

Law enforcement officials confirmed the boy was cited within the last two weeks for vandalism.

Last Thursday, a 20-year-old Oxnard man was arrested for allegedly telling a Rio Mesa High School student in an online chat room that he planned to kill her and others at the Central Avenue campus. The suspect, Henry Carnell May, 20, remained in custody Wednesday.