12-Year-Old Accused Of Threatening To Commit Murder, 'Shoot Up' School

METHUEN (CBS) -- A student at the Tenney Grammar School in Methuen has been arrested for making a threatening post on Instagram Monday. The 12-year-old boy threatened to "shoot up" the school and referenced a specific employee, police said.

The threat was posted as a reply to a post on the school's official Instagram account.

"The message was a specific message to shoot up the school this morning, but [what was] alarming was the second part, that the subject named a specific employee of the school and that they would kill that employee. So it was a very specific threat, way more specific than we are used to getting," said Police Chief Joseph Solomon.

When police tracked down the suspect and searched his home, no weapons were found.

He was arrested around 7:30 Monday night and charged with making threats to a school and threatening to commit murder before being released back into his mother's custody.

School Resource Officer David Gardner said, "The kids are taught, the administrators are taught 'see something, say something.' They said something it and it made the investigation so much easier. We were able to track down the child within an hour."

A heightened police presence was at the school on Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday, the boy will be arraigned in Lawrence Juvenile Court.