New Jersey high school student arrested for posing with a gun on social media – Telemundo New York (47)

What you should know

• A student at Howell High School in New Jersey faces charges after posting a photo of what appeared to be a weapon on Snapchat, a photo many viewed as a threat.
• The Snapchat photo shows what appears to be part of a rifle and the words “Don’t pu Tomorrow”, written by a high school student. That’s all the Howell police needed to speed up an operation.
• The recent Michigan school shooting added emphasis to what police did in Howell.

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NEW JERSEY – A Howell High School student in New Jersey is facing charges after posting a photo of what appeared to be a weapon on Snapchat, a photo many viewed as a threat.

The Snapchat photo shows what appears to be part of a rifle and the words “Don’t pu Tomorrow”, written by a high school student. That’s all the Howell police needed to speed up.

The recent Michigan school shooting added emphasis to what police did in Howell. And, while it may not have turned out to be a real weapon, the words in the post and the images were intended to cause alarm, threat and risk of violence, authorities said.

“They all communicate with each other, so it immediately spread like wildfire,” Howell Police Department Capt.Tom Rizzo said.

The posted message was interpreted by the police as: “Don’t stop at school tomorrow. Don’t come here or else.” And it had Howell appalled Wednesday.

“Children should never have to go to school and worry about it,” a local told our sister network NBC 4 New York.

The high school principal, Jeremy Braverman, released a statement reading in part that the post was “promptly investigated” and “not found credible.” While adding that the student “will not be in school in the immediate future.”

Police say the gun in the Snapchat photo is actually a BB gun, although it looks real.

It is the easy access to guns and the increase in gun sales across the country and in New Jersey that prompted the police reaction in Howell.

“We don’t need what happened in Michigan,” Rizzo said, adding that they need to be “vigilant and aware of what has unfortunately become commonplace in our society.”

Since the Howell incident involves a minor, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office will have to determine what it wants to do about bringing charges against the student from a minor’s point of view.

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