Bodycam footage from May 2023 of Jackson County deputies interviewing the teen who went on to allegedly attack Apalachee High School shows him denying he had made any threats and deputies taking him at his word.
Breitbart News reported that the FBI was alerted to the suspect over a year before he allegedly opened fire in Apalachee High School. The FBI alerted Jackson County, and two Jackson County Sheriff’s deputies were sent to interview the then-13-year-old and his father.
Bodycam footage of that interview shows the father repeatedly telling deputies that he understands the magnitude of the alleged school shooting threats and that his son did too. The father described how “pissed off” he was going to be if he found out his son had made the threats.
However, when the son came out to talk to the deputies, he denied making any threats and claimed he had not recently been on Discord, a social media platform on which the threats were reportedly made.
The deputies asked the boy if he had heard threats made by others on Discord and he answered, “I don’t think so.”
Deputies continued to talk to the boy, comparing his answers and explanations with the answers and explanations his father had given minutes earlier.
The deputies did learn that the teen had been “bullied” at his previous school, and they told him, “There is always someone you can talk to if you need to” and they specifically mentioned “school resource counselors.”
The deputies then encouraged him to “start looking out and making goals for yourself.”
As the deputies were leaving, one of them told the boy to alert his dad if he were to hear anything about school threats, and the other deputy said he took the boy at his word.
That boy, 13-years-old at the time of the interview, allegedly shot and killed four people at Apalachee High School on September 4, 2024.
On September 5, 2024, his father was arrested for “knowingly allowing his son … to possess a weapon.”
CBS News reported that the father was charged with “four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly: awrhawkins@breitbart.com.