Juvenile Waives Rendition for Alleged Mass Shooting Threats

BOSTON, Nov. 26, 2018—The New Hampshire who allegedly threatened mass shootings in calls to at least two Boston bars earlier this month was arraigned today following his arrest in Seabrook last week, District Attorney John Pappas said.

The 16-year-old juvenile, whose last fixed address was in Hampton, NH, was apprehended by Seabrook Police on Friday night. During a hearing at the 10th Circuit Family Division of Portsmouth Court today, he waived rendition proceedings on Massachusetts complaints charging him with delinquency, to wit: threatening to use deadly weapons, threatening to do bodily harm, and a civil rights violation. He was transported to the Boston Juvenile Court, where Judge Peter Coyne set bail at $1,000.

The charges stem from threatening calls made on Nov. 9 and 10 to two bars serving Boston’s gay community. The prosecutors and police detectives investigating the threats believe the calls were not made using a traditional cell phone number, which would have been linked with subscriber information identifying the phone’s owner. Instead, the evidence suggests, they were placed through a smartphone app that allows the user to make phone calls and send text messages through wireless internet.

Investigators identified the phone number assigned to the app and obtained the user name, email address, and alternate phone number that were entered when it was first installed. In the days that followed, they undertook extensive efforts to identify the person who created the account and determine whether he or she was the same individual who made the threatening calls.

By following a trail of defunct email addresses and reassigned phone numbers, investigators established that the juvenile had first installed and used the app on April 7, 2016. By checking the call records associated with his account, they established that the app had been used to send and receive dozens of calls and text messages to and from one of the juvenile’s close family members at around the same time as calls to two bars that reported telephoned threats to “kill everyone” and “shoot everyone in the bar” on the evenings of Nov. 9 and 10.

The records also suggest calls made to several other Boston bars serving the gay community during the same time period. Investigators are following up with staff at those establishments to determine whether additional charges are warranted.

The juvenile was represented today by attorney Ziyad Hopkins. He returns to court on Dec. 10.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.