On Tuesday, Bellevue Police arrested two juveniles on suspicion of making online threats.
Monday night, three high school students called police to report threats to shoot them were made online.
“It got to a point where they recognized this was more than just typical banter. This was becoming a real, credible, and imminent threat,” said Bellevue Police Captain Joe Nault.
The suspects, a male and female, through social media threatened to find the victims at their high schools and shoot them, police said.
“That they were going to carry out their threats there if necessary,” Nault added.
The victims all attend separate high schools.
The victims told police that the male suspect sent a video flashing a gun and ammunition.
Police searched the female suspect’s residence but were denied entry by the parents of the male suspect.
While police waited for a search warrant to enter the home, the female suspect tried to escape through the back of the home before being caught.
Both suspects were arrested.
Bellevue Police told KIRO 7 that one suspect was a student in Bellevue School District and the other was a student in the Issaquah School District.
Guns and ammunition were found in the home according to Bellevue Police.
“All of us – young people, parents, and everyone in the community – need to take threats of violence seriously, but especially threats of gun violence – whether it’s in person or online,” Shelby Shearer, Captain of the Bellevue Police Department said. “Fortunately, with timely and critical help from the community, the Bellevue PD was able to interrupt this escalation of threats, get the two people taking them into custody, and get their firearms away from them before we had a tragedy in our community.”
Police stopped it just hours before the threats could’ve turned into a reality.
“It does happen and like knowing the world we live in, it’s scary,” said Antonia, who is a student at Newport High School.
Antonia received an email from the school that commended the students for reporting the threats to police.
“I do hear about it a lot and like, it’s sad to say that I think a lot of people are becoming desensitized to it,” Antonia added. “Knowing my siblings were at school was pretty scary.”
It’s the swift actions of the victims that Nault says could’ve been a matter of life and death.
“We have prevented incidents that I’m convinced were going to turn into shootings if we had not gotten involved,” Nault said.
Police are still investigating but do not believe there is a threat to the community.
