Update: Edmonds Teen, Sammamish Cyber-Threat Suspect, Released to Home Detention

Update, 10:50 a.m. Oct. 4: King County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Dan Donohoe confirmed this morning that the 16-year-old Edmonds teen suspected of posting a threat to shoot students at Skyline High School in Sammamish was released to home detention on the order of King County Chief Juvenile Court Judge Helen Halpert, pending charges, which are expected to be filed today in the case.

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Original story: King County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Dan Donohoe said today that evaluation for home monitoring was authorized by King County Chief Juvenile Court Judge Helen Halpert for the 16-year-old Edmonds teen suspected in a case that closed Skyline High School after a threat to shoot students in the common area was reported Sept. 19. The school was closed on Sept. 20 in response to the threat.

In a press release, the prosecutor's office said:

A detention review was held this afternoon for a 16-year-old boy who was arrested yesterday for posting an online threat last month directed at Skyline High School. At today’s hearing, the Court found probable cause and authorized the suspect to be screened for electronic home detention. The suspect, a former Skyline student, is also suspected of making a similar threat regarding Meadowdale High School in Lynnwood. October 4 is the deadline for a charging decision.

Donahoe told Patch that the suspect could be released to home detention later today, Oct. 3, or tomorrow morning. His mother was in court and agreed to assist with home detention. 

The court documents also recommend restricted Internet access for the boy.The teen's detention hearing was handled in juvenile court today. Donahoe said that at this time the charging documents likely will be filed in juvenile court. Patch does not name juvenile suspects unless they are tried as adults.

The charging documents report that the suspect allegedly posted a message to the social networking site 4chan.org, threatening to go to Skyline and "open fire on the people in the commons" either until he was taken down by police or took his own life. The post describes "killing jocks first, because they deserve it most."

That night, according to the documents, a Skyline student created a Facebook page "Not going to school tomorrow because of threat" and police received a call from Hawaii reporting the threat.

The suspect allegedly posted comments on that Facebook page mocking other students' responses to the threat. According to the charging documents, he had been expelled from Skyline in November of 2011 for possessing gummy bears laced with LSD.

Several students at Skyline recognized the language from the threat, and associated it with communications they had had with the suspect, including him telling a student that he now was using a proxy server, and alerted the school resource officer.

Police served a search warrant on the teen's Edmonds home yesterday, Oct. 2, and recovered two laptops, a tower computer, and two smart phones. In the forensic investigation of the computers, police found a link from the computer to a photo file that appears to be a semi-automatic weapon, possibly linking the teen to the crime.

The photo had been accessed and modified by that computer just minutes before the threat was posted on 4chan, the probable cause statement asserts.

The Edmonds teen, who attended Edmonds-Woodway High School, was expelled on Wednesday, Oct. 3.

For all of Patch's coverage of the Skyline High School Threat, visit our topic page on Sammamish-Issaquah Patch.

Editor's note: This story originally incorrectly state Dan Donahoe's title, he is a spokesman for the King County Prosecutor's office. The article has been updated to correct the information.