A Rochester City School District student has been charged with making a threat to people at East High School.
Deputy Mayor Cedric Alexander and Deputy Police Chief LaRon Singletary held a news conference late Friday afternoon, saying that this investigation began on February 15th, when Rochester Police were made aware by staff at the city school district about a threat posted on the East High School Facebook page.
That threat reportedly read, “I’m coming tomorrow morning, and I’m going to shoot all of ya bitches.”
As a result of the investigation, police arrested 21 year old Abigail Hernandez, a city resident who is described as being an undocumented immigrant. They also say she was in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
She was arrested on February 20th and turned over to federal authorities and is being held in Batavia. Officials say Hernandez is a student in the city school district, but did not say which school she attends. They say it is not East High School.
Police say they recovered a shotgun at the woman’s home. She faces a felony charge of making a terroristic threat. Authorities did not say who owned the gun or if it was legally owned.
Alexander credits a lot of different people for making sure this threat didn’t turn into a tragedy.
“The country is on edge, and of course, everyone is on notice, and what was remarkable in this case, is that the police department, the school district and the community worked collaboratively together to bring this potential threat to a halt.”
Alexander reiterated that line we hear so often from law enforcement, “if you see something, say something.” He says that certainly worked in this case.
Shaun Nelms, the Supt. of East High School posted a letter to families of students which said that schools across the country have been grappling with social media threats in the wake of the Florida shooting, and he says officials here are grateful to the Rochester Police Dept. for keeping them well informed throughout the entire process.
He says RPD had a presence on the East H.S. campus last week and he says their guidance on how to keep staff and students safe reiterates their ongoing support.
