New England Patriots receiver Julian Edelman may have helped stop a potential school shooting after alerting the authorities about disturbing comments left on his Instagram page.
Edelman told the New York Times that he was in Texas visiting his former teammate Danny Amendola late last month when he received an alarming direct message on Instagram.
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“Dude, there is a kid in your comment section says he s going to shoot up a school, i think you should alert the authority,” the message read.
The athlete said that he immediately thought of the Parkland school shooting, which took place in February.
“With the emotions of what happened, and I have a kid now, I said, holy Toledo, what is going on?” he said.
So Edelman contacted his assistant in Boston, Shannen Moen, who looked through the comments on Edelman’s most recent Instagram post and found one that read, “I’m going to shoot my school up watch the news.”
Moen called 911, and a police officer arrived and called her chief after seeing the screenshot. Two detectives also came to the scene and were able to obtain information about the user who posted the message, tracing the poster’s email and IP address to Port Huron, Michigan.
Police in Michigan were alerted and traveled to the home where the message originated. There, police found a 14-year-old boy who admitted to posting the message.
Capt. Joseph Platzer of the Port Huron Police Department said that police also found two rifles belonging to the boy’s mother, and that the teen had aimed his threat at the middle school he attends.
The boy is currently in a juvenile detention center and was charged with making a false report of a threat of terrorism. The crime is a felony that could carry a sentence of up to four years in jail.
Moen said that she was glad the authorities took the message seriously and that a potential shooting was thwarted.
“When I told Julian, he was in shock,” Moen said. “We’re very lucky the Boston cops were all over it, very lucky the Michigan cops were all over it.”
Edelman made sure to note that the person who sent him the direct message is “the real hero.” The athlete has reached out to that person, though has not yet received a response.
“Thankfully, this kid said something,” Edelman said. “We’re going to send him something, a care package, just for his work. He’s the real hero.”
Photo Credit: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com
