J.P. Taravella High School in Coral Springs was sent into a panic in late February when a call came to 911.
"Hello, I go to Taravella High School and I believe a student has a form of weapon, like a gun, on campus," the 911 caller said in audio exclusively obtained Monday by NBC 6 Investigators.
“What makes you think that?" the dispatcher asked.
"I saw them reach into their bag, and he pulled out a black, metal-type object out of their bookbag," the caller said.
Get South Florida local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC South Florida newsletters.
"And are you at the school right now?" the dispatcher asked at some point during the call.
"I'm at the school. I'm hiding in the bathroom right now," the caller said.
The caller gave a description and also had a name, increasing the chances that it was a real threat. Officials locked down the school after the call. But it turned out to be a hoax.
Local
The real student at Taravella that allegedly matched the description on the 911 call was actually detained and thoroughly vetted before police concluded he had zero to do with the hoax.
Coral Spring Police pulled out all the stops to find the person they say is responsible, and their investigation took them all way to north Texas.
"I think it hits a little closer to home for us because we were obviously responders to the (Marjory Stoneman) Douglas incident," said Coral Springs Det. Jason DeLuca. "So now for us, it's no longer just a story you hear about or a potential call. We were all there. We've dealt with this scenario before."
The threat frightened the community just five miles from the site of the Parkland massacre.
Police's investigation took them 1,300 miles away to Irving, Texas, where a 15-year-old uploaded two YouTube videos saying he used a phone burner and chose the Coral Springs school because he knew somebody there, adding he'd do it again.
"Once any digital or cyber investigation, it's always about putting somebody behind the digital device that was used for the communication," DeLuca said. "So once we track it down to a location, a physical location, within reason, then it's about chipping away the other pieces to again make that positive identification."
According to a police report, the very same student was investigated in Missouri for another swatting incident and for allegedly threatening a female student by telling her to send nude photos or else the “SWAT team will show up” at her house.
In recent years, Taravella High School has been the location of other lockdowns. In 2017, a student brought a fake gun to campus forcing students to evacuate. Then, in 2019, a suspicious incident put the school on code red, and just two months after Parkland, a student was arrested for making an online threat to shoot up the school.
"Just to stress that the Coral Springs Police Department takes these matters very seriously, and we will utilize every resource at our disposal to protect our citizens and specifically our children from any type of individuals that would mean them harm," DeLuca said.
The police department in Coral Springs and Broward County prosecutors have been in close touch with the prosecutors in Texas. The 15-year-old will not be extradited to South Florida and will go through the juvenile justice system in Texas.
