Friends Say Attleboro High School Columbine Threat Was A 'Joke'
ATTLEBORO (CBS) - Friends of the two Attleboro men arrested in connection with Facebook postings in which they talked about shooting up the high school say it is all a big mistake.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Karen Twomey reports
Podcast
Former Attleboro High students Natick Sands, 18, and Ryan Ringuette, 20 were arrested Monday and charged with threatening the use of a dangerous weapon at a school.
They were arraigned Tuesday afternoon in Attleboro District Court and each ordered held on $7,500 bail.
Police were alerted after another student who currently attends the school saw these posts on Facebook.
Sands: "And people wonder why I talk about random mass killing sprees all the time…FED UP."
Ringuette: "Im with u."
Sands: "one day man."
Ringuette: "Columbine ove again."
Sands: "only if I can take the first shots, you know I get **** poppin lol"
Police say they had no choice but to act, even though there was no imminent danger to anyone at the school.
No weapons were recovered and there's no evidence that the two were even trying to acquire them.
But their friends say, referring to Columbine, the April 1999 attack in Colorado where two teens killed a dozen students and a teacher, was thoughtless and sick.
"It was basically just a joke gone wrong," Ryan Gomes told reporters outside court Tuesday.
"People look at things like this every day and I see things like this all the time. It's just people expressing themselves in the wrong way. It was stupid for what they said, but it was a joke. I've known both of them for like ten years and I know none of them would ever, ever do something like this in (my) whole entire life."
If convicted, they could face three years in prison.
This incident comes just a week after a high school student in Ohio killed 3 classmates.
