Palmdale High School placed on lockdown after Facebook threat; arrest made

PALMDALE, Calif. (KABC) -- A 14-year-old boy was arrested Friday after he allegedly threatened to shoot up Palmdale High School on a Facebook post, prompting officials to place the school on precautionary lockdown twice.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department units responded to the scene in the 2000 block of East Avenue R around 8 a.m. after students came to class and reported seeing a post on Facebook, where someone threatened to shoot up the school.

The lockdown was lifted around 10:30 a.m. after authorities determined that the threat was not credible. However, sheriff's officials said the school was placed on precautionary lockdown again after more messages of a non-specific threat started to circulate around.

"When they researched it, it didn't appear credible until the lockdown was released," Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Det. Miguel Torres said. "Once we terminated the lockdown, the person reposted, making an indication that kind of like he saw what was going on but he said, 'you guys think I'm kidding,' and that it was really going to happen so that's when we relocked it down. We researched the updated postings and we were able to locate our subject at his apartment and we arrested him there."

The suspect, who attends a different school in Palmdale, was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats. A BB gun was found at the residence.

School operations returned to normal at 1:15 p.m.