BAKER COUNTY, FL – On January 19, 2021, detectives with the Baker County Sheriff’s Office began an investigation resulting from the Baker County High School being briefly locked down after numerous students received screenshots of a Snapchat message that went viral on social media outlets.
The contents of the message included a threat to commit a shooting at the school, and it came from a subject who claimed to be anonymous. During the days that followed this incident, detectives worked with school resource deputies to swiftly identify the person who compiled and transmitted the threat. As a result of the investigation, on January 21, James Thompson III “J.T.” was taken into custody.
Thompson has been charged with transmitting written threats to kill and/or conduct a mass shooting, as well as disruption of a school function.
Sheriff Scotty Rhoden stated, “The cooperative effort between the Baker County School System and the Baker County Sheriff’s Office once again resulted in a positive outcome. Parents should continue to have discussions with their kids about the severe consequences of transmitting threats on social media. The Sheriff’s Office will continue to be relentless in our efforts to investigate and arrest individuals who use social media to post threatening statements. I want to once again thank our detectives for their outstanding work in this case. Families, please remind your children of the importance of the ‘See Something, Say Something’ message. As a community, we will continue to work together to keep our children safe. May God continue to guide and protect everything we do to keep our schools a safe place.”