VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – A teenager "vowed" to commit a mass shooting at his high school while chatting with other players on a video game platform, according to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies said FBI agents contacted them after receiving tips about a user who went by FalconWarrior920 on Discord who had made threats that concerned other players. Investigators used the user's IP address to trace him to a home in Holly Hill.
A 15-year-old Seabreeze High School student who lives at the home admitted to making the comments using a fake name, but said that he was just joking, according to the affidavit.
Records show the boy wrote to other users, "I Dalton Barnhart vow to bring my fathers m15 to school and kill 7 people at minimum."
The teenager was banned from the game Thursday and spoke with deputies Friday morning, the report said. His family said there is a gun at the home but he does not have access to it.
The boy faces a charge of threat to discharge a destructive device.
School threat arrest 8/16/19A student from Seabreeze High School was arrested recently after posting a comment on a video game chat platform. The comment was: "I Dalton Barnhart vow to bring my fathers m15 to school and kill 7 people at a minimum" The comment was reported to the FBI, and the FBI contacted us. The name "Dalton Barnhart" was fake, and the young man responsible for the comment insisted it was a joke. Joke or not, these types of comments are felonies under the law. After the mass violence we've seen in Florida and across the country, law enforcement officers have a responsibility to investigate and charge those who choose to make these types of threatening statements.
Posted by Volusia Sheriff's Office on Monday, August 19, 2019