Broward County

Coral Springs Student Said School Shooting Threats Were ‘Supposed to Be Funny': Arrest Report

The report released Monday details the arrest of 18-year-old Catrina Petit on Friday on charges including written threats to kill or do bodily injury, making a false report of a bomb threat and disrupting a school function

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A Coral Springs student's threatening messages that set off a wave of panic at several schools in South Florida and other parts of the state last week were "supposed to be funny," she told investigators, according to an arrest report.

The report released Monday details the arrest of 18-year-old Catrina Petit on Friday on charges including written threats to kill or do bodily injury, making a false report of a bomb threat and disrupting a school function.

According to the report, Coral Springs Police said it all started when teachers at J.P. Taravella High School received two emails within the school's secure system containing the threats on Thursday.

Broward Sheriff's Office
Catrina Petit

Police identified the two laptop computers used to send the threats and found the students whose login credentials were used hadn't had access to the computers and hadn't sent the threats, the report said.

Witnesses and staff told police Petit was the one who'd accessed the two laptops, but when police first questioned her about the threats, she denied making them, the report said.

But when officers met with her at her home on Friday, Petit allegedly admitted to making a mistake, saying "it was supposed to be funny," the report said.

Petit told investigators she had no intent of following through with the threats but couldn't explain what made her send them, the report said.

"I don't know I'm a very dumb person sometimes," she said, according to the report. "Sometimes I do stuff without reasoning."

NBC6's Xochitl Hernandez has more after the teen caused panic across several counties Friday,

Petit was booked into the Broward County jail and was granted an $80,000 bond during a court hearing over the weekend, where her church pastor and others told a judge she's a thoughtful young woman.

"She is one of the most, respectful, humble, polite, obedient, submissive and thoughtful young woman that I have ever met in my thirty years of ministry," Pastor Aruilus Desmornes said.

The threat caused panic at many South Florida schools as well as several districts throughout the state, with many parents saying they kept their kids home because of concerns over the threat.

Broward County Public Schools officials said preliminary attendance data showed just 63% of high school students were present on Friday, May 5, compared to 82% of high school students which were present the previous Friday.

"This detective received numerous calls from agencies throughout the state and country stating they received the threat and were also going on a code or leaving extra officers at the schools for the day," the arrest report read.

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