Teen Arrested After Making Shooting Threats Targeting Palmdale High School

Sheriff's deputies said Friday a teenager was arrested for allegedly making criminal threats of a possible shooting targeting a Palmdale high school.

Deputies received a call about 6:30 p.m. Thursday regarding a threat of a planned shooting Friday at Pete Knight High School, according to Deputy Ronald Sneed of the sheriff's Palmdale Station.

The deputies went to the school, in the 37000 block of 70th Street East, and learned that a fight had occurred on the campus earlier that day, resulting in several students being detained and suspended. The deputies conducted multiple interviews and parent-authorized searches of homes, Sneed said.

They interviewed a teen boy involved in the fight who had allegedly made threats on social media and posted pictures of a person holding a firearm and bullets, according to the sheriff's department. Sneed said the teen admitted to posting the picture and writing additional threats, Sneed said.

The teen was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats and was taken to Sylmar Juvenile Hall, Sneed said.

Several additional students were interviewed but were found to have no involvement with the posting or threats.

An AR-15 rifle, ammunition and a list of intended targets were seized in another threat investigated Friday morning at a different school in Willowbrook. A 13-year-old was being investigated after a shooting threat at Animo Mae Amison Charter Middle School, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. 

A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said since the deadly shooting Nov. 14 at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, there have been 36 threats against schools that the department has investigated.

All of the threats have been deemed not credible, except for the Palmdale threat and the Willowbrook school threat, both of which occurred Friday, the department said.