Published18 September 2024, 11:24
Florida: Annoyed sheriff publicly exposes 11-year-old rampage threatener
Fed up of threats of school shootings, a sheriff in Florida is taking drastic measures: He is even pillorying eleven-year-olds.
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Felix Traber
A sheriff in the US state of Florida is taking drastic steps to counter increasing threats of alleged school massacres in his district. Mike Chitwood, Sheriff of Volusia County, announced that he would publish the photos and names of underage perpetrators on social media as a deterrent.
“Parents, if you don’t educate your children, I will start doing it,” he warned. “Every time we make an arrest, your child’s photo will be released. And if I can, I will parade it publicly,” Chitwood said.
Words were soon followed by actions, as the 60-year-old showed on various online platforms on Monday: He had an eleven-year-old arrested who had threatened to carry out a massacre at a school and published a video showing Carlo “Kingston” Dorelli being led away in handcuffs. After this so-called “perp walk”, Dorelli can also be seen being shackled before being locked in an empty cell. The sheriff’s office also posted the student’s police photo and name.
The 11-year-old said it was just a joke, said Chitwood. Nevertheless, the threat constituted a serious crime. The boy boasted about weapons in a video chat and wrote down the names of people he said he wanted to kill on a list. When police searched his room, they seized a large number of airsoft rifles and pistols as well as fake ammunition, knives, swords and other weapons.
The crackdown has a serious background. Last Friday alone, the police in the district received 54 reports of threatened school massacres. Although all of them turned out to be fake, investigating them cost around 19,000 euros. There have been 207 threats since January, local media reports said.
If he finds out that the parents knew what was going on but did nothing about it, he will also publicly expose them, the sheriff said at an event on Friday. “So parents, do your job: Don’t let Sheriff Chitwood raise your children. That is absolutely ridiculous,” he added.
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(DPA)
