Florida mom begs police to release son who threatened school with gun: ‘He’s not one of those crazy people’
A Florida teen who “vowed” to bring a gun to school and “kill 7 people at a minimum” was arrested, despite his mother pleading to police, “He’s just a little kid playing a video game.”
"I Dalton Barnhart vow to bring my fathers m15 to school and kill 7 people at a minimum,” Adam Guzzetti, 15, wrote on a Minecraft chat, using the pseudonym “Dalton Barnhart.”
According to a police report sent to Yahoo Lifestyle by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office in DeLand, the message written under the username “FalconWarrior920” was screenshot and posted to Discord, a chat app for gamers. An anonymous person saw the message and reported it to the FBI.
On Monday, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, which confirmed Adam’s identity to Yahoo Lifestyle, tweeted a YouTube link containing body-camera footage of officers confronting the teen and his mother at their Holly Hill home.
In the four-and-a-half-minute police footage shot on Friday, officers read aloud Adam’s statements to the teen and his mother, Amethy Organ.
Joke or not, these types of comments are felonies under the law. After the mass violence we've seen in Florida and across the country, law enforcement officers have a responsibility to investigate and charge those who choose to make these types of threatening statements.
— Volusia Sheriff (@VolusiaSheriff) August 19, 2019
“He’s under arrest currently for making a threat to cause a mass shooting slash act of terrorism,” said detective Brian Howard.
“To cause a mass shooting?” Organ, 51, said incredulously. “...But he’s just a little kid playing a video game.”
Howard replied, “...How do we know he’s not going to be the kid from Parkland? The kid who shot up Sandy Hook? We don’t know that...” in regard to mass shootings that occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida in 2018 and Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.
“But these games — these kids say stuff like that all the time,” insisted Organ. “It is a joke to them. It’s a game.”
Howard explained that his job is to stop these types of conversations and subsequent acts, per Florida statute that says one cannot make written threats to cause a mass shooting. “So if I get on there and pledge ISIS and say, ‘I’m going to blow everybody up,’” he said, “that’s the same charge as...’I’m fed up, I’m going to...shoot up my school.”
The officer told Organ that her son would be detained in a juvenile jail. “The charge is a felony,” he said.
Organ broke down in tears. “He’s just a little boy,” she said. “He didn’t do anything wrong...he’s not one of the crazy people out there...”
“Well, he did what he did,” stated Howard.
“Yeah, but he shouldn’t be treated as though he’s a terrorist or something because he made a silly statement on a stupid video game,” she said. “...He’s not ‘that person.’”
When asked if she owned a gun, Organ answered yes. “So he has hands and feet, he can go grab your gun and do something,” said the officer. To which the mom protested, “He would never do anything like that anyway.”
“We don’t know that,” answered Howard. “No, but I know,” she said.
“Joke or not, these types of comments are felonies under the law,” the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office tweeted. “After the mass violence we've seen in Florida and across the country, law enforcement officers have a responsibility to investigate and charge those who choose to make these types of threatening statements.”
In a statement provided to Yahoo Lifestyle, Volusia County Schools superintendent Tim Egnor said: “The partnership that’s been established between all levels of law enforcement and the school system worked to immediately identify the threat and take vigorous action to ensure the safety of all the students at the school.”
As far as whether the teen will be allowed to return to school, Egnor says: “If and when he’s released we would have a threat assessment meeting before he’s allowed back in school.”
Representatives for Seabreeze High School did not respond to Yahoo Lifestyle, and Organ did not return Yahoo Lifestyle’s interview request.
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