Update: The City of Brookings, Brookings Police Department and the Brookings School District issued a joint statement about this report on Wednesday afternoon. The entities say the article has four inaccuracies.
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Update: The City of Brookings, Brookings Police Department and the Brookings School District issued a joint statement about this report on Wednesday afternoon. The entities say the article has four inaccuracies.
• The juvenile male student identified in the newspaper article did NOT threaten to “shoot up” a Brookings school.
• Law enforcement did NOT take the student into custody.
• Law enforcement did NOT commit the student to a mental health facility.
• This case is NOT being adjudicated in juvenile court.
The Register maintains that all the information in the article below was provided to us by Brookings Police Chief Dave Erickson on Tuesday afternoon.
Chief Erickson has admitted to making misstatements on Tuesday to the Register based on the information he had at the time. He offered the admission in a phone call with the Register about 15 minutes after the joint city/school district statement was released. It is on tape, and his admission will be part of the Register's follow-up report on Thursday.
BROOKINGS – Brookings police say they took a juvenile male into custody earlier this month after he allegedly sent a threatening text message to another student saying he was going to “shoot up” a Brookings school.
Brookings Police Chief Dave Erickson said the Feb. 17 incident involved mental health issues. The juvenile has been committed to a mental health treatment facility, and the case is being handled in the juvenile justice system.
Erickson said the juvenile never had access to weapons, and “any threat he made was eliminated. The necessary steps were taken, and a safety plan was put in place.”
The juvenile’s parents were made aware of the threat, and probation and court services officers are involved in the case.
The chief declined to identify the individual, his age or what school he threatened in the text message, which referenced the recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
The student who received the threatening message contacted the Brookings County Sheriff’s Office, which then contacted the police department to handle the investigation, Erickson said.
Erickson said anyone who hears or sees any sort of threat should take it seriously and report it to police, no matter how minor they think it is.
“It takes a village,” he said.
Contact Jill Fier at jfier@brookingsregister.com.
