Police in Scarborough and Gorham responded to a social media threat after being contacted by the FBI late Sunday night.
The incident caused “panic” in Gorham about a possible mass shooting, according to police. However, the threat was ultimately determined not to be credible and no one was charged.
The social networking site Snapchat notified the FBI about a post referring to a threat to Gorham High School, according to police.
Sgt. Benjamin Moreland of the Gorham Police Department was contacted late Sunday night by the FBI about the message in which a student in Gorham posted inaccurate information that the threat was to “shoot up” Gorham High School, police said.
Police visited the Gorham student’s home and determined the original threat was posted by a juvenile in Scarborough. The names and ages of the students were not disclosed by police.
“This posting caused a panic that required our officers to divert resources from the investigation to address people’s fears,” Moreland said in a press release. “Additional police officers and detectives came in and followed up on the computer crime aspect of the threat and a physical address that is not in Gorham was found to be where the threat was sent from.”
Scarborough police said the department was notified Sunday night about a “vague Snapchat message about a mass shooting threat” that came from an IP address connected to a house in Scarborough. The message was posted in a private message to 11 other juveniles and adults, but did not contain a specific threat or means for carrying out a shooting, Scarborough police said.
At 1:07 a.m., officers from Scarborough responded to the residence and met with the juvenile Snapchat account holder and the child’s mother, police said.
“The child immediately admitted posting the threat Saturday night at 8:28 p.m. after a disagreement with their mother,” Scarborough police said in a press release. “The juvenile had no knowledge of the gravity of the statement or the means to carry it out.”
Scarborough police said it is not known if any of the 11 individuals on the chat ever received the message. The threat was determined not to be credible and the juvenile who admitted writing it will not face charges, according to police.
The incident is the latest in a series of threats involving Maine schools and students that have been investigated since the Feb. 14 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida. More than a dozen Maine students have been charged with making threats.
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