North Port child arrested for mass shooting threat

CAPE CORAL, Fla. — A 12-year-old North Port boy was arrested after making a mass-shooting threat via Snapchat.

Evan Stahl was arrested by the Cape Coral Police Department Saturday night.

“It mentioned a school and it mentioned a mass shooting,” Cape Coral Police Public Affairs Officer Brandon Sancho said.

According to the report, Stahl posted a Snapchat story stating, “To the person who said, “if I’m insecure, thanks wanna shoot up a school with me.” “

The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office was able to determine the message was sent from Cape Coral and not his home address in North Port.

When CCPD investigators arrived to the residence Stahl was at, he reportedly gave them varying responses.

“First, he kind of didn’t mean it and didn’t post it, and then he finally, post Miranda, did say he claimed ownership of those threats,” Sancho said.

Stahl then claimed that he did not plan to follow through with the threat and did not have access to any firearms, according to CCPD.

Police said mass shooting threats such as this one, will not be ignored or taken lightly. Even if no school name was specifically mentioned.

“We’d rather take someone to jail than have these threats be carried out,” Sancho said. “We’d be in a much worse situation.”

Marina Harrison lives in Cape Coral with her 15-year-old son, and she agrees, threats like this aren’t a joke.

“There are so many cries for help that we don’t see we tend to overlook,” Harrison said. “We just need to step up as parents and pay attention to our kids and recognize those signs.”

Stahl was later taken to the Lee County Juvenile Assessment Center by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO).

No further details are available at this time. Count on NBC2 to provide the latest developments as we learn them.