New England Patriots receiver lauded for flagging possible school shooting threat on Instagram
The New England Patriots' Julian Edelman, known for his quick feet on the turf, is now being praised for his quick thinking off the field, which may have thwarted another school shooting.
In March, an Instagram user notified the NFL wide receiver of a comment posted to Edelman's Instagram account, threatening to shoot up a school.
"Dude," the Instagram user said. "There is a kid in your comment section says he [is] going to shoot up a school, I think you should alert the authority."
Edelman immediately reached out to his assistant in Boston, who reportedly pored over comments in search of the post. She eventually found it. The post said: "I'm going to shoot my school up watch the news."
According to The New York Times, Edelman said he was moved to do something in the wake of the Parkland school shooting in Florida.
"With the emotions of what happened, and I have a kid now, I said, 'Holy Toledo, what is going on?'" he told the Times.
His assistant then reached out to the police in Boston.
"Boston PD reached out to our department. Our on-duty supervisors immediately started looking into the information that was provided," said Capt. Joe Platzer of the Port Huron Police Department in Michigan. "We take these threats very seriously. We look into them very thoroughly. Like we tell everybody, if you see something, if you hear something, say something."
According to Platzer, police traced the message back to a 14-year-old boy in Port Huron, Michigan. He said the teen was brought in for questioning and admitted to writing the threat.
Police also said they found two rifles in the teen's home that belonged to his mother.
The teen, whom police have not identified, was arrested and charged with making a false report of a threat of terrorism, which is a four-year felony in the state.
According to Platzer, Port Huron detectives spoke to Edelman and credited him with bringing the threat forward. Without Edelman's reaction to the alarming social media post, police said, it's likely they would not have known about the threat.
According to authorities, 79 percent of mass casualty attacks last year came with warning signs that were either missed or ignored.
