California teen is arrested after threatening classmates and posting rifle photo on Twitter

A 15-year-old high school student in Northern California has been arrested after threatening to harm classmates and tweeting a photograph of himself holding a rifle, police said Tuesday.

The Vanden High School student posted the photograph Monday night on Twitter with a caption threatening to hurt people on campus the next day, according to the Fairfield Police Department. A parent was notified about the boy’s tweet and called police.

A few hours later, police went to the boy’s home in Vacaville and took him into custody on suspicion of making threats. Officers found a .22 caliber rifle, the same pictured in the photograph, at a family member’s home, police said.

The boy’s name wasn’t released because he is a juvenile.

The Travis Unified School District said students saw the boy’s threat and “did the right thing by letting adults know.” The campus is about an hour’s drive from San Francisco.

“This allowed law enforcement to take swift action,” the district said in a statement. “As always, the safety of our students and staff is our top priority.”

The boy’s threats come days after detectives in Tuolumne County arrested four students who plotted to go on a shooting rampage at their high school, about 122 miles southeast of Fairfield.

Tuolumne County Sheriff Jim Mele said the boys had a detailed plan that “included names of would-be victims, locations, methods in which the plan was to be carried out.”

Their targets were students and faculty members, he said. Students overheard the boys talking about their plans. The boys’ plan was foiled when detectives found evidence indicating the students planned to carry out the attack at an upcoming school event.

The plot was uncovered a day before a gunman killed eight classmates and his college writing teacher Thursday at Umpqua Community College in Oregon.

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