On Monday, April 3, 2023, at approximately 8:30 a.m. the Brandon Police Department was made aware of an incident by a parent involving a student at the Neshobe Elementary School in Brandon in which the student had allegedly threatened to shoot both students and staff at the school last week.
The incident in-question occurred last Thursday, but was not reported to law enforcement at the time. Prior to that incident, a parent had contacted the Brandon Police Department late this weekend concerning another incident at the Neshobe Elementary School in which a child had allegedly brought in a plastic sport bottle with a flint and striker. It should be noted that this incident was not reported to law enforcement prior to one of the parents in the school district making the police department aware of what happened. Upon further investigation at the time, it was determined that the student didn’t make any overt and/or direct threats towards staff or students but did make the comment that he “Could make a bomb if he wanted to.” The plastic sport bottle was determined to be just a plain sport bottle with no flammable or explosive liquid inside of it. It was also determined that the child did not have access to any weapons and/or firearms. As a result, the school administration did a threat assessment on the child and determined that there was no threat to the staff and students, but did take disciplinary action by suspending the child from the school.
When the Brandon Police Department learned of the second incident involving the student that had threatened to shoot other students and staff members, an immediate investigation was opened and witnesses and school staff at the Neshobe Elementary School were interviewed. The Rutland County State’s Attorney’s Office was also notified of the complaint and were kept aware of the status of the investigation as it progressed throughout the day. The investigating officer, at the onset of the investigation, was informed by the school that the student that had made the threats was still attending classes at the school, at which point, for obvious safety concerns, the school administration was ordered to remove the child from the classroom, to contact the child’s parents to respond to the school, and to wait for the arrival of law enforcement to speak with them.
The investigating officer subsequently met with the parents at the school, who immediately took custody of their child and left the school grounds. After several verbal statements were taken from witnesses, probable cause was established to show that the delinquent act of Criminal Threatening had been committed by the juvenile. The investigating officer went to the juvenile’s home soon after and met with the child and both of his parents. The child was issued a Juvenile Citation to appear before the Rutland County Superior Court-Family Division in June for an initial hearing on the complaint.
The Brandon Police Department would like to assure all the staff, parents, and students that work at, have children at, or are students at the Neshobe Elementary School that this matter was
immediately dealt with, by our agency, at the time that it was finally brought to our attention. We
would also like to assure everyone that our investigation determined that the child who had made the threats did not have any access to firearms or the ability to acquire them from anyone in his family.
The most important reason for this press release is to dispel any rumors that have been spread
throughout our community and over social media this past weekend about what had occurred, and to calm any fears that parents, staff, and students may have returning to the school moving forward. The child that had made the threats has been suspended by the school pending review of the circumstances by the school administration.
The Brandon Police Department takes all threats to the safety and welfare of our children and teachers very seriously and will do everything in our power and ability to make sure that everyone at our schools is kept from harm.
Respectfully,
Chief David Kachajian
