Richmond County juvenile detained after false school shooting threat

A.R. Johnson Magnet School

Date: August 24, 2024

In a concerning incident that unfolded on Thursday, the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office responded to a threatening social media post targeting A.R. Johnson Magnet School in Augusta.

According to Sgt. John Perry, the post claimed that the school would be the site of a shooting. Upon receiving the alert, local authorities quickly launched an investigation.

The inquiry led to the identification and apprehension of the juvenile responsible for the post. Following their capture, the minor was transported to the Criminal Investigations Division (CID) for questioning.

During the investigation, the juvenile confessed that the threat was intended as a joke and had no real intent to carry out any violence. Additionally, it was confirmed that the individual had no access to weapons.

Despite the lack of tangible threat, the juvenile has been detained at the Regional Youth Detention Center (RYDC) on charges related to terroristic threats and acts.

Below are the posts that led to the charges:

What to Read Next

The Author

Greg Rickabaugh is an award-winning crime reporter in the Augusta-Aiken area with experience writing for The Augusta Chronicle and serving as publisher of The Jail Report. He also owns AugustaCrime.com. Rickabaugh is a 1994 graduate of the University of South Carolina and has appeared on several crime documentaries on the Investigation Discovery channel. He is married with two daughters.

Comment Policy

The Augusta Press encourages and welcomes reader comments; however, we request this be done in a respectful manner, and we retain the discretion to determine which comments violate our comment policy. We also reserve the right to hide, remove and/or not allow your comments to be posted.

The types of comments not allowed on our site include:

  • Threats of harm or violence
  • Profanity, obscenity, or vulgarity, including images of or links to such material
  • Racist comments
  • Victim shaming and/or blaming
  • Name calling and/or personal attacks;
  • Comments whose main purpose are to sell a product or promote commercial websites or services;
  • Comments that infringe on copyrights;
  • Spam comments, such as the same comment posted repeatedly on a profile.