17-year-old Maury County TN student charged with terrorism after school threat
MAURY COUNTY, Tenn. Aug 26 2019 It was back to class as normal Friday at the Hampshire Unit School in Maury County.
By all accounts, it’s been an anxious couple of days for parents, students, administrators, and law officers, after a 17-year-old student allegedly made serious threats and was arrested.
The young man was a student at Hampshire School.
According to investigators, at some point, the school administrators learned of some unsettling things and quickly got law enforcement involved.
“Without getting too deep into that, I think it is mostly some mental health issues there that need to be addressed and you never know what will spark or set that person over the edge,” Maury County Sheriff Bucky Rowland told News 2.
According to Rowland, the investigation began in earnest Tuesday night.
That’s when Maury County law officers made contact with a 17-year-old at Hampshire Unit School.
According to school officials, “the student was allegedly planning to harm the school.”
“There was some things overheard and law enforcement was notified and we started our investigation,” said Sheriff Rowland.
By Wednesday, the young man was in custody and charged with the commission of an act of terrorism.
“We were able to go out and thwart a possible bad situation. It is a totality of all indicators that was put together. It was not just one thing that was said or done or found, it was a totality of all those,” Rowland said.
Sheriff Rowland won’t elaborate on the specific threat that was made, but he credits all agencies acting proactively to diffuse a potentially dangerous situation.
Bucky Rowland says, “Instead of us waiting for something bad to happen to address this, we were proactive, and will get this student the resources they need to go out and be productive.”
“Thanks to the quick reaction of students, parents, and law enforcement, a possible tragedy was avoided in Hampshire. the goal of prosecuting this case now is to help this student address and correct the issues that led us to this situation. in this case, the system worked,” said Brent Cooper, District Attorney for the 22nd Judicial District.
“We just took that proactive approach and we were able to keep our students and faculty safe in the Maury County school system,” said Rowland.
The student had a juvenile detention hearing Thursday and was ordered to remain in custody.
WKRN
