Threat Suspect to be in Court

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Posted: 10:46 PM Sep 22, 2008
Last Updated: 11:56 AM Sep 23, 2008
Reporter: WOWT-TV
Email Address: sixonline@wowt.com

27 comments

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The 14-year-old Omaha North High student arrested Monday is scheduled to appear in Douglas County Juvenile Court Tuesday at 1p.m.

Omaha police have arrested the student for a crime that has become, unfortunately, all too familiar: Making a terroristic threat against classmates.

Police took the North High freshman out of class Monday. It has not been revealed how many students the teenager planned to hurt or how he planned to carry out his threat -- but some clues led parents and students to take action.

Police will say the teen used a computer to threaten to shoot other students and himself. Some parents and students found out about the threats and alerted authorities Sunday night. Their action led police to arrest the student.

The news came as a shock to parents and students. Many at Monday night's North High School softball game did not know about the incident until Channel 6 News told them about it. They are thankful that those who knew about the threat did the right thing by going directly to authorities

Alan Whicken, an Omaha North parent said, "It's scary you know, like we were talking, you don't know if it's something personal or it's a copycat or what's going on." Wendy Forrest, another Omaha North parent said, "I'm glad somebody spoke up and let officials know and so that he could get the help he needs so he doesn't hurt himself of somebody else."

Police have removed firearms from the boy's home -- for safe keeping. The boy did not have any weapon with him when police arrested him at school.

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Comments are posted from viewers like you and do not always reflect the views of this station.

Posted by: :) on Jan 14, 2009 at 12:19 PM
Well, this kid is so, amazing he would never do anything like this he was just blowing off steam I mean if you would really come to the school and ask all the students they would say that he would never do anything like this he is a straight a student and just had some built up emtions and everyone does, but everyone deals with it differenty.I have known this kid for a while and i can't believe what is happing he is awating trail just got off house arrest lets see what happens:) I LOVE YOU RVE

Posted by: Mr. Winkler on Nov 9, 2008 at 06:42 PM
Groovy Granny, you're on drugs. This is blows way our of proportion, I'm pretty sure telling a joke isn't against the law.

Posted by: freshiee on Oct 7, 2008 at 07:49 PM
This kid is my best friend. I know him better than a lot of people. I know he was kidding around. He didn't really threaten anyone either. He was just saying some thing. Yes, its blowing off steam in a bad way. But did he come to school with a gun? No. So everyone should probably back off. Anyone who does blame this on the area, the kids from west omaha. He's an amazing kid, anyone would want to get to know him. I don't think he should be expelled, its not fair. I think maybe people should stop being so crucial and get to know people.

Posted by: Bumed and confused on Oct 7, 2008 at 04:16 PM
I do to school with him and this is stupid. He is one of the nicest people and this is being blown way out of perportion and he was just kiding. They should let him back to North High.

Posted by: n. on Oct 7, 2008 at 02:17 PM
honestly, people have no room to judge him. people in this world are jerks. he was not seriously about hurting anyone. i am sure that many people have made threats like this and they havent gotten in trouble. if you people had any idea of what happened to him, and who he was before all this was told to people, you would love him. he is an excellent person and you people cant get past your judgements. after all, if some of you are people of God, you have no room to talk. in your bible, it is said that everyone was created equally and God was the only one that can judge people. so before you condemn him, and say hes a bad person, WAKE UP, and deal with your own problems. he did not hurt anyone so get over it.

Posted by: freshmen on Sep 27, 2008 at 04:44 PM
i went to school with him. and all i know is that everyone is pretty bummed that he's gone. im pretty sure that he would never do that, and i know that he was kidding.

Posted by: kiddo on Sep 26, 2008 at 04:11 PM
alright i know the kid who planned it. he would never do that, and i strongly believe that this all is a mistake. i hope this all turns out alright.

Posted by: ziggy on Sep 23, 2008 at 05:33 PM
i went to school with him middle school and high school (going to north as a freshman right now) but hes really cool everyone is saying he got framed by someone else and i believe it

Posted by: Omaha North Parent on Sep 23, 2008 at 05:24 PM
I received a automated phone call this afternoon at 9am I did sign up for the emergency notification. I feel this was kinda late to be notifying parents. It was on the news all day yesterday. Sad thing is like another person posted. Parents to kids out west think they dont have the same issues but they do

Posted by: Collin on Sep 23, 2008 at 04:48 PM
I am a student at North. I believe I know this guy (not going to give out his name), but I'm surprised that he would do such a thing as this, if I have the right person. It's sad that people these days feel the need to take their anger and frustration out on others in order to get attention.

Posted by: Susan on Sep 23, 2008 at 03:34 PM
"*Hey There, EveryOne Out There in Cyber Space, My 2 Dearest Sweetest Bestest Nebraskan Nifty Nephew's Have Both Gone to School in the Millard Area Most ALL of Their Lives, HowEver, the Eldest has AlReady Graduated with the Youngest Coming UP^ this Next Year, & When in the World Wide Web that I Hear News of This Nature, It Makes Me Think that NoOne is Safe in High School's ARound the Country AnyMore, & to Think that Our School's were Founded on Christian Principal's Way Back When, & Now the GovernMent Does EveryThing in It's Power to Separate Church & State, ThereFore, Keeping Prayer Out of School's, & I've Been Pondering ThoughtFully on Whether in the World Wide Web that Prayer May Keep ALL or at Least Some of These Incidents Out of Our School System's, b/c Our God/Wonderful Lord & Saviour, Jesus Christ of Earth, Heaven, & Us is Way More Powerful than Old Slew Foot/Satan/The Devil, to Say the Least, AnyWay?!*" ;):) :(Love Ya, Seeking Susan:) (Psalm 23) ;) a.k.a. Groovy Granny

Posted by: J on Sep 23, 2008 at 03:17 PM
I agree that the bullies need to be looked at and dealt with. BUT that still does not make it right for the kids to threaten they are going to shoot the bullies or whoever they don't like for whatever reason, two wrongs don't make a right. Even if they were just making comments and blowing off steam, in this day and age we can't take a chance, unfortunately we've learned that for experience.

Posted by: H on Sep 23, 2008 at 03:07 PM
Fire up old sparky yet again. Who cares about the circumstances.

Posted by: Erin on Sep 23, 2008 at 01:36 PM
I don't care if the kid was bullied...you don't threaten other people. Yes, bullies should be stopped, but that doesn't give this kid a free pass to threaten people.

Posted by: well " b" on Sep 23, 2008 at 01:31 PM
Obviously you never went to a public school or you've had your head stuck in the sand. "How does this happen?" hit the nail on the head. Hope this kid's parents get a good lawyer and they round up some witnesses.

Posted by: Dennis on Sep 23, 2008 at 01:17 PM
A threat is a threat, at least they caught this one early enough.

Posted by: Anonymous on Sep 23, 2008 at 01:12 PM
Maybe they didn't personally tell each and every parent and pupil because it was an investigation. After he was picked up the threat was gone. Why does everyone think they need to know everything? If the firearms were legal they will have to return them. Was this kid infact bullied the news didn't report that but they usually only report part of the facts anyway.

Posted by: Anonymous on Sep 23, 2008 at 12:35 PM
i went to north we never had anything like this going on there were fights 6 time a week but never any threats made we even had a couple students hit teachers

Posted by: SOB on Sep 23, 2008 at 12:03 PM
To All: he is from WEST OMAHA!!!!!!

Posted by: SOB on Sep 23, 2008 at 11:12 AM
this is a good kid,he even get all"A" from what i'm told from my kids that go to school with him.you are right,it to bad they don't look at the BULLIES.

Posted by: b on Sep 23, 2008 at 10:59 AM
I didn't realize this kid was bullied. "How does this happen?" - do you know this kid?

Posted by: Juan on Sep 23, 2008 at 10:49 AM
I'm assuming that the firearms mentioned in the article were lawfully owned by the suspect parent(s). Question: Will OPD ever release them to the lawful owner? I seriously doubt it.

Posted by: Starr on Sep 23, 2008 at 10:32 AM
My son goes to North and I didn't know it about it until I watched the news. Why do I have to find out on the news about something as serious as this? The school needs to look into how they notify parent about serious situations as this.

Posted by: a concerned parent on Sep 23, 2008 at 10:30 AM
My son goes to Omaha North. What concerns me is nothing was said to the students or the parents until it was on the news. I do believe individuals need to be informed of the situation and let them decide on if their child should be pulled out of school for that day for their safety. What happened to the automated calls that were suppose to be made incase of a situation. I never received one and think that it should be used in all situations that arise. Home schooling my children seem to be the only way to protect them from an incident like this.

Posted by: Mark on Sep 23, 2008 at 10:05 AM
Whatever happened to a good 'ole fist fight? Seems kids these days are afraid to get hit and would rather kill with a weapon. IMHO.

Posted by: H on Sep 23, 2008 at 08:23 AM
Just waiting to see how many people from West Omaha are going to blame this on the area.

Posted by: How does this happen? on Sep 23, 2008 at 12:19 AM
A child gets bullied, gets tired of it, then makes some comment and gets instantly labeled as a TERRORIST. If teachers had more guts and we had better parents out there, this would stop. Go after the bullies and you'll put an end to this. It's a shame this kid is going down the drain because more than likely there were other circumstances. Too bad we as taxpayers aren't getting our dollars worth from these schools. Can't wait to read the pack-mentality comments that'll be posted here about this kid. Probably posted from the bad parents of bullies too.