Hoax sends WMPD to assess ‘threat’ at West Jr. High

Hoax sends WMPD to assess ‘threat’ at West Jr. High

Social media post originated out of state

ralphhardin@gmail.com With deadly incidents like the mass shooting in Florida last week, it’s important to take any potential harmful scenario seriously. With that in mind, during the overnight hours last Thursday night, the West Memphis Police Department received information about a possible threat at West Junior High School.

According to the Police Department’s Facebook page, “Detectives immediately began working the threat, which was sent via Snapchat to a student at West.”

As was the case in a similar situation in January at Marion High School, the message was deemed to be unrelated to West Junior High or any other school in the region.

“Detectives were able to locate the original sender in Kentucky and learned that it was a prank that was shared in a ‘chain’ style fashion on Snapchat,” said police officials.

Detectives in Kentucky were able to locate and debrief the original sender.

Police are satisfied there is no legitimate threat associated with the message. The West Memphis Police did take precautionary measures Friday morning.

“The WMPD posted several marked cars at the school for student drop off this (Friday) morning, just to make sure parents who possibly heard this rumor felt safe dropping kids off,” said police. “We would like to thank the parents who notified us of this and all of our community for their efforts to keep our schools safe.”

By Ralph Hardin