Yesterday’s bomb threats against two three Prince William County High Schools have resulted in the arrest of seven teenagers:
Seven teenagers were arrested in connection with three bomb threats in Prince William County and Manassas high schools yesterday, heightening fears on a day when school violence was already on the minds of many.
The threats, which caused two schools to shut down for hours and left panicked parents scrambling to find their children, came on the eighth anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado and four days after the Virginia Tech shootings.
“The devil is truly busy,” said parent Debra Chapman, one of many who converged on Gar-Field Senior High School in Woodbridge yesterday to pick up their children.
Gar-Field was one of two schools shut down yesterday and one of three to receive threats.
The law-enforcement scramble began at 7 a.m., when Prince William police received a call indicating there was a bomb at C.D. Hylton High School in Woodbridge. Students arriving at the campus were immediately diverted to the bleachers near the football field, where many used cellphones to call parents.
“We were all kind of scared,” said Stephen Dalton, 17, a junior. His father, Steven Dalton, 46, was at his construction job when he got the call.
“It’s a bit worrisome,” the father said. “It seems to be happening everywhere in this country.”
At 9:30 a.m., Manassas police said, two students at Osbourn High School found a note threatening to blow up the school. The note was quickly found to be a hoax, and four students were arrested — two 15-year-old boys, one 17-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl — on charges of threatening to bomb. Their identities were withheld because of their ages.
Jeffery L. McCrosky, 18, of Dumfries, was charged with threatening to bomb Gar-Field. Colgan said police traced a threatening call to a pay phone at the Potomac Mills Mall and saw McCrosky on a surveillance video. They arrested him as he stood outside Gar-Field near the crowd of anxious parents. Colgan said McCrosky’s motive was “to get his girlfriend out of class.”
Like I said yesterday, dumbass.
