Police on alert for copycat killings after Florida shooting

Police across the nation are now on alert for possible copycat shootings following the mass shooting at a South Florida high school on Wednesday that left 17 people dead.

Law enforcement officials have responded to threats in several states, including many posted on social media, of possible school attacks since the murders in Parkland, Fla. Some school districts, wary of threats, have canceled school.

Police in Fayetteville, Ark., arrested a student who threatened to “shoot up the school like they did in Florida” on Thursday, though the police assessed that the student did not plan on carrying out the threat and the school held classes on Friday. 

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And a high school student in Spartanburg, S.C., was arrested after posting a photo on Snapchat captioned “Round 2 of Florida tomorrow” while wearing a mask and holding what resembled an assault rifle similar to the one used in Wednesday’s shooting. 

An official from the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office told local news station WHNS on Thursday that police determined the post was “intended as a joke” and did not intent to carry out a copycat attack, but the school district responded by increasing security at the school. 

Police also arrested and charged 18-year-old Alwin Chen in Germantown, Md., on Thursday for arriving at school with a loaded handgun and knife, according to the Montgomery County Police report. 

A similar post on social media “referring to the recent school shooting in Florida” on the night of the Florida shooting led to the arrest of a high school student in Ohio for “Inducing Panic a Felony of the 2nd degree,” police said. 

Suspected Florida shooter Nikolas Cruz, 19, used a semiautomatic rifle, gas mask and smoke grenades in carrying out the attack on his former high school. 

Cruz had previously been flagged as a threat to students at the school after being expelled.