A teenage boy from Pinal County, Arizona was apprehended last weekend after praising the Uvalde, Texas, school massacre and threatening mass shootings at a high school, police station and movie theater, cops said Monday.
Nineteen-year-old Joshua Adam Bowen was arrested on Sunday and charged with making terroristic threats after someone tipped off authorities to the disturbing comments he made online. He is currently being held on a $150,000 bond, the Casa Grande Police Department said in a news release.
“He threatened family and friends and praised the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas,” where a teenage gunman armed with an AR-15-style rifle slaughtered 19 children and two teachers, the release stated.
The FBI allegedly informed Casa Grande police of the posts, and Bowen was arrested on Sunday after police placed him under surveillance.
According to the news release, investigators didn’t find guns on Bowen but said they identified information that led them to “believe he may have access to firearms.”
“There is no doubt in my mind this individual was intent on hurting people and, ultimately would have a found a way to do it,” Case Grande Police Chief Mark McCrory said in a statement.
“Fortunately, we have great support at the local, state, and national level to identify these threats and in this instance these relationships functioned exactly as they should, and we were able to work together to stop a serious threat to our community.”
McCrory urged residents to continue to report threats to law enforcement.
