An official at a Florida school was arrested Wednesday on charges of making two threats involving bombs and a mass shooting.
The accused, Patrick Jean, 28, is front desk attendant at Lauderdale Lakes Middle School. Both threats were received the day before, with the bomb threat in the morning and the mass shooting threat in the afternoon, and both threats involved both the middle school and the nearby Boyd H. Anderson High.
The middle school in Broward County is located within the same county schools system as Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 14 students and 3 staff members died in a mass shooting on Feb. 14, 2018.
The arrest was carried out by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office Threat Management Unit in collaboration with Broward County Public Schools Special Investigative Unit (SIU).
According to detectives, at approximately 9:34 a.m. Tuesday, April 27, a tip was received indicating that there were bombs on the campuses of Lauderdale Lakes Middle School, 3911 N.W. 30th Ave. and Boyd H. Anderson High School, 3050 N.W. 41st St.
BSO deputies, along with BSO’s Threat Management Unit detectives, responded to the schools to investigate. Sweeps were conducted at both schools, and the threats were deemed unfounded.
Later that day, at approximately 1:02 p.m., another tip was received which read "Imma shoot up Lauderdale Lakes Middle School and Boyd Anderson's school. This is not a joke." Deputies responded back to the schools and conducted searches, which were also deemed unfounded.
Further investigation of the incidents led detectives to identify Jean as the suspect in both threats.
BCSO said that Jean was arrested at the middle school. In a post-Miranda confession, he admitted to making the threats, a news release stated.
Jean is facing two counts of threats to discharge a destructive device and two counts of written threats to kill or conduct a mass shooting, and is being held at the BSO Main Jail on $40,000 bond.