Tampa teen, 15, wrote about 'blowing up' his school on social media, police say

A high school student was arrested after writing on social media that he planned on “blowing up” his Tampa school, police said.

Tampa police said they began investigating the threat Thursday night and identified the 15-year-old Middleton High School student as the suspect. Police said the online threat also mentioned using an automatic weapon on students. 

Initially, they said, the teen denied writing the message. An officer continued questioning the teen, and, with the help of the teen’s father, he eventually admitted to posting the message, detectives said.

The teen told officers he didn’t mean it, they said. The 15-year-old was arrested and faces a charge of writing a threat to conduct a mass shooting.