NEW YORK CITY — A juvenile in Brooklyn was arrested in connection to swatting calls and online threats made to law enforcement in Texas and Florida, including cities where mass shootings have occurred.

In January, according to the Uvalde Police Department, multiple threats were received in Uvalde, including swatting calls made to Uvalde CISD, social media threats targeting a family member of a Robb Elementary School shooting victim and other social media threats directed at Uvalde CISD students.

Similar swatting calls were made to Edgewood ISD campuses in San Antonio and a Florida school on the same day, a multi-agency investigation revealed.

As part of a joint investigation involving Texas DPS Criminal Investigations Division, City of Uvalde Police Department, FBI San Antonio and Uvalde CISD Police, the threats were traced to the New York area and Texas authorities traveled to Brooklyn to further investigate the incident on April 30. There, the juvenile suspect was taken into custody at his residence on one felony count of terroristic threat and four misdemeanor counts of false report of an emergency. 

The juvenile confessed to making swatting calls to law enforcement in Uvalde, San Antonio, Parkland, Fla. and Coral Springs. They also confessed to sending multiple social media threats, researching active shooter incidents and monitoring the social media accounts of law enforcement and Uvalde CISD students.

Authorities say the juvenile had no connection to Uvalde, San Antonio or Florida.

“This operation demonstrates our commitment to working with partners to ensure we hold people accountable for threatening our community. We will not allow distance or digital anonymity to shield those who try to cause fear or disrupt the safety of our schools and neighborhoods,” Uvalde Police Department Chief Homer E. Delgado said.