Police arrested a 15-year-old high school student in Fresno, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 31, after the teen posted some Eminem lyrics on his Instagram — lyrics that referenced the deadly 1999 Columbine High School shooting, which killed 13 people.
According to The Fresno Bee, school officials at San Joaquin Memorial High School took action after being alerted to the teen’s disturbing post, which quoted Eminem’s 2000 track “I’m Back.”
“I take seven kids from Columbine, stand ‘em all in line / Add an AK-47, a revolver, a nine / A MAC-11 and it oughtta solve the problem of mine / And that’s a whole school of bullies shot up all at one time / I’m just like Shady and just as crazy as the world was over this whole Y2K thing,” the post read.
The words from the boy’s social media account are taken nearly verbatim from the rapper’s song, except for a slight tweak on the lyrics “I’m just like Shady,” versus the original, “I’m Shady.”
School officials promptly shut down the school on Tuesday, Sept. 1, for safety purposes. St. Anthony’s Catholic School, where the boy was previously a student, also canceled classes.
The Fresno Bee reports that police charged the teen with making terrorist threats and disrupting school activity.
One thing that particularly stuck out to the authorities beyond the initial post was the comments it garnered.
Another teen — who was questioned on Tuesday — commented on the post, “Bring me with man. I got some stuff [to] settle,” to which the boy replied, “Ill text you when. I got a couple idiots’ blocks I could knock off.”
According to The Bee, the student has had a series of emotional challenges to face in his life recently: his mother died about a year ago from an illness; he had just broken up with his girlfriend; been bullied; had quit the football team; and he was doing poorly in school.
“These are really all of the things we look for in individuals that historically have been involved in incidents like Columbine,” Fresno police Chief Jerry Dyer said at a press conference Tuesday. “So we’re very fortunate that this was brought to our attention.”
Police obtained a search warrant for the boy’s home, and found a replica AK-47 Airsoft rifle, a handgun, a .357 Magnum revolver, a 12-gauge shotgun, ammunition, and a bulletproof vest.
The boy’s attorney, Linden Lindahl, told The Bee that authorities are too quick to jump to conclusions, however.
“They weren’t trying to get information,” he said of the police officers’ interrogation. “They were questioning him as if he were already guilty.”
