Kamloops youth arrested after posting online threat to local school

Kamloops RCMP have arrested a male youth who posted a photo on SnapChat of someone holding two pistols with a caption threatening a local school.

According to police, Kamloops Christian School is closed Thursday out of an abundance of caution.

"We are confident that we have the author of the threat in custody, and that there are no risks to the school staff or students at this time," said Staff Sgt Mat Van Laer.

Police say the original tip about the post came from Interpol, the international criminal police organization with 194 member countries.

More details about the suspect are not being released because his age. He is facing "serious consequences," according to Van Laer.

Van Laer says police take threats of this nature seriously and that they are demanding on police resources.

Quick response

School principal Sandro Cuzzetto said he found out about the threat after he received a phone call at 5 a.m. from the RCMP.

"We were very, very happy with respect to the speed and how quickly the RCMP worked along with all the other agencies that were involved really as quickly as possible," said Cuzzetto.

"We live in a fairly interesting age where information moves very, very quickly."

Cuzzetto wasn't able to comment on whether or not the student who made the threat was on the administration's radar due to the ongoing investigation.

He added that there are many people who look at posts online, and in this case Interpol happen to catch onto the threat first.

"It seems like it's quite far away but threats like this...once they are out there, they're out there and it is the information age. Information moves very quickly and somebody along the way is going to catch something, and in this case it started with Interpol and then quickly moved to RCMP," said Cuzzetto. 

Kamloops Christian School is expected to re-open on Friday and counselors will be on hand to support students, he added.