New details emerge as 15-year-old faces charges for Southwind High School threats

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - A Nashville teenager has been arrested and charged with making threats to Southwind High School in Memphis.

Homeland Security and the FBI helped the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office identify and locate the 15-year-old, who was taken into custody within 36 hours of Wednesday’s incident.

Investigators said the threats made to Southwind triggered more threats to at least a dozen other Memphis Shelby County schools, and that led to a district-wide lockdown. SCSO Sheriff Floyd Bonner told Action News 5 that his detectives worked through the night to obtain a warrant for the teen’s arrest. Bonner said the young man made several phone calls to the school and posted a message on Instagram stating his intent to shoot up the school.

Chief Deputy Anthony Buckner said SCSO would impress upon the juvenile court in Memphis that this young man caused chaos and cost the county a lot of money, as the county had to divert manpower and resources to investigate the threats and protect numerous campuses across Shelby County.

“Right now, we have secured a felony warrant for threats of mass violence at a school,” Buckner said, “So our role and our responsibility right now is to bring him back to Memphis and transfer him to juvenile court where he will face Judge Sugarmon and his staff, hopefully in the next day or two, to decide if he should stay in jail or be released to his parents until this case is resolved.”

Chief Buckner said his detectives drove the suspect to Memphis Thursday night.

He will be housed in the Shelby County Youth Detention and Education Center. What punishment he faces is unknown.

Earlier in the day, during a Facebook Live, Superintendent Dr. Marie Feagins confirmed that 60,000 MSCS families did not receive the district’s emergency phone call during the crisis, and another 130,000 never got the emergency text message.

“We’ve had conversations with the company,” said Dr. Feagins, “to figure out if it’s technical difficulties, if it’s something…an opportunity for the company to work on…or human error on our end? Are we attempting to send out too many messages?”

School communication company Finalsite, in a statement to Action News 5, said:

Supt. Feagins also said there have now been six arrests stemming from Wednesday’s school threats.

The Nashville teen was picked up in the Southwind High case. Five others are from Memphis, including three Whitehaven students detained after an incident at that school on Wednesday and another student picked up Thursday for falsely pulling a fire alarm.

More threats impacted classes on Thursday. According to officials, Freedom Prep closed all campuses. Crosstown High and the University Schools, operated by the University of Memphis, switched to remote learning.

One final note: MSCS still doesn’t have a Chief of Security.

The district’s hire in August, George Harris, resigned after four days on the job, citing personal reasons. Action News 5 reached out to MSCS for an update on replacing him, and did not hear back by our deadline.

Action News 5 will keep you updated.

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