JEFFERSON, Georgia – The anonymous tips were sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in May 2023 from as far away as Australia, warning that a user on Discord, a social media platform, had threatened in a chat group to possibly “shoot up a middle school”. The authorities were led to a 13-year-old living in Jackson County, Georgia.
A report from the Jackson County sheriff’s office, obtained by The New York Times, detailed how investigators looked into but were unable to definitively link those threats to the teen, who is now in custody after a shooting on Sept 4 morning at his high school in Winder, Georgia. He is suspected of killing two students and two teachers.
Hours after the shooting, the FBI disclosed that law enforcement had investigated the online threat, which was made in May 2023. But the report from the sheriff’s office reveals more about how authorities were able to trace …