A 13-year-old girl was arrested over an Instagram post threatening copycat killings after the Florida school shooting
- A 13-year-old was arrested over alleged threats to kill school students.
- An Instagram post named a school nine miles from where 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
- The girl reportedly told sheriff's deputies that the post was a joke.
- A 15-year-old boy was arrested in similar circumstances earlier this week.
A girl in the sixth grade was arrested for threatening to kill students in the same Florida school district where 17 students were shot dead last week.
The unnamed girl, who is 13, was arrested by sheriff's deputies who were tipped off about an Instagram post threatening killings at a local grade school.
Central Charter School in Lauderdale Lakes was named in the post. It is nine miles from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 people were gunned down last Wednesday in the latest US mass school shooting.
Central Charter educates children from kindergarten to eighth grade. It is not clear whether the girl is a student there.
According to the Broward's County Sheriff's Office, the girl posted the threat around 8.30 p.m. on Monday, outlining an attack to come either on Tuesday or Thursday of that week.
She was arrested on Tuesday, and told deputies that "the post was done in jest." Nonetheless, she was arrested and faces a felony charge of intimidation.
The sheriff's office said her parents had been keeping her home from school that day because of the threat, which they were not aware that she had allegedly made herself.
It came two days after the same sheriff's office announced that they had arrested a 15-year-old boy for similar threats, also posted on Instagram.
Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in the school shooting, is in jail and faces trial for 17 murders. If found guilty, he may be put to death.