10-Year-Old Arrested After Allegedly Making Mass Shooting Threat At Florida School

Cape Coral, Florida -- A fifth-grade student was arrested by authorities during the weekend after he allegedly made a mass shooting threat at his elementary school in Cape Coral. The county sheriff called the student’s behavior “sickening.”

In a statement posted Sunday, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said it was made aware of a “threatening text message sent by a fifth grade student at Patriot Elementary School” on Saturday. Sheriff Carmine Marceno said the “student’s behavior is sickening, especially after the recent tragedy in Uvalde, Texas,” adding that the sheriff’s team “didn’t hesitate one second…to investigate this threat.” The statement was accompanied by a video showing the student's arrest.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office identified the 10-year-old student as Daniel Isaac Marquez. He has been charged with making a written threat to conduct a mass shooting, but due to the nature of the incident, the case has been turned over to the Youth Services Criminal Investigations Division.

“Right now is not the time to act like a little delinquent. It’s not funny. This child made a fake threat, and now he’s experiencing real consequences,” Marceno said.

Florida is no first-timer in the school shooting scene. In 2018, then 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The massacre ended with 17 deaths. Cruz was recently expelled from the school due to disciplinary reasons at that time. He was taken into custody about an hour after the mass shooting.

News of the fifth grader’s arrest came after multiple threats in different schools across the United States in recent days, on the heels of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting last week that resulted in 21 deaths, 19 of which were children.

On Thursday, six elementary and high schools in California were placed on lockdown following multiple threats. The lockdowns were lifted on the same day, but Lt. Adam Sharki of the San Diego Police Department said “any threat is taken very seriously, especially after what just happened,” referring to the Uvalde mass shooting.

Also last week, Donna Independent School District officials canceled Thursday and Friday classes after police thwarted a “credible threat of violence.” The southern Texas school district said the cancelation of classes was decided “in an abundance of caution,” NBC reported. Donna police Chief Gilbert Guerrero said during a Thursday briefing that four males – all students in the district – were arrested in relation to “a possible school threat” initially tipped to authorities Tuesday.