Florida police investigating a mass shooting threat online determined that a teenage girl had tried to frame her ex-boyfriend to get him in trouble.
Officials at Riverview High School were alerted to the mass shooting threat via an email on Wednesday that included a screenshot of an Instagram post, according to police.
'It doesn't matter if it's a joke, it doesn't matter if it's from AI, it doesn't matter if you're mad, and it doesn't matter if you're trying to pin it on someone else. You're going to face the consequences.'
Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies responded and found that the post appeared to come from a male student who attended the school.
After police interviewed the male student, they determined the post did not come from him but was actually created by his ex-girlfriend.
The 15-year-old was a former student at the high school and had made the hoax image with the use of artificial intelligence, according to police.
When they interviewed her, she admitted to sending the false screenshot to the school administrators.
The girl was charged with written or electronic threat to conduct a mass shooting or act of terrorism and two other charges related to the threat.
"Threatening a school is a felony in Hillsborough County. And it doesn't matter if it's a joke, it doesn't matter if it's from AI, it doesn't matter if you're mad, and it doesn't matter if you're trying to pin it on someone else. You're going to face the consequences," said Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office chief communications officer Amanda Granit.
Retired Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent Rich Kolko said people falsely believe they won't get prosecuted for online behavior.
"People sit at home, they're sitting at their desk, and they feel they have this keyboard anonymity," Kolko said to WFLA-TV.
"They think nobody can find them or nobody's going to bother them. They're just playing on their computer; it's no big deal. Well, as this young lady learned and as too many other people have learned, it is a big deal," he added.
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