VERO BEACH — An 18-year-old student is behind bars after investigators connected him to an earlier social media threat to shoot up a high school, causing the campus to be placed on a brief lock down Monday, officials said.
“As a result of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act of 2018, law enforcement has additional abilities to make arrests when threats are conveyed by text or social media,” Indian River County Sheriff Deryl Loar said in a statement. “It is not a joke and you will be arrested.”
Sean Martin
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY INDIAN RIVER COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
The Vero Beach High School student – identified as Sean Preston Martin Jr. – posted the threatening message on Snapchat, a mobile app, reports show. The message read, “(Expletive) Vero and everyone that goes there. I’ll shoot that (expletive) up,” authorities said.
Deputies arrested Martin, of the 4000 block of 41st Square, Vero Beach, on a charge of written threats to kill. Martin was held Wednesday at the Indian River County Jail without bond.
Martin originally sent the threatening message to another Snapchat user and student in January, reports show. The student showed her parents the message, and the parents notified a school resource deputy on Monday.
The threats caused Vero high to be placed on a code yellow lock down Monday morning for about 30 minutes, officials said. Martin was seen on campus Monday, but was later detained off campus.
Martin admitted to deputies he posted the message to Snapchat, reports show. The teenager said someone kept getting him in trouble and he wanted to see if the other student “was telling on him,” authorities said.
Martin told deputies his father owns firearms. Martin said he doesn’t have access to them because they are all locked in his father’s bedroom, reports show.
Deputies arrested Martin and took him to the county jail. Martin has an arraignment at 8:45 a.m. June 7, court records show.
The case was the latest involving a threat made against an Indian River County school.
Another student, a seventh-grader at Imagine School South Vero, was arrested in mid April for also making threats, deputies said. The student was arrested off campus and taken to the Department of Juvenile Justice in Fort Pierce.