PECULIAR, Mo. — The male student arrested in the Ray-Pec school threat has been formally charged, and will be tried as an adult. In Missouri, someone as young as 17 can be considered an adult.
The Cass County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office announced that Daren Davis, 17, has been charged with one count of making a terroristic threat, a class C felony.
Davis is currently in custody and has had his bond for release set at $10,000.
A probable cause statement reveals that Raymore Police received several calls regarding possible threats at the south building of Ray-Pec High School on Wednesday through social media.
Detectives interviewed Davis at home and he told police he had heard about the threats while riding on his school bus. After a check of his home revealed no evidence to link Davis to a threat, court documents say Davis voluntarily agreed to be interviewed at the Raymore Police Department and spoke to police without an attorney.
While at the police station, Davis confessed to a police captain that he had made threats, including that a mass school shooting would happen at the high school on Thursday morning, through social media. Davis said he acted alone and only made the threats to gain attention, he said he never intended to carry out a real assault according to the probable cause statement.
Earlier Thursday morning, Raymore and Peculiar police departments held a news conference to assure the public that it was safe for students to return to school following threats of violence made on social media in the days before.
In an interview with FOX 4’s Rob Collins, Ray-Pec School District Superintendent Dr. Kari Monsees said the threats were not credible.
“Our belief was this was not a credible threat and that no one was ever in any real danger,” he said.
Related: Student in custody after posting online threat
Despite the lack of credibility, during Thursday’s news conference police stressed the importance for students and parents to understand there are serious consequences for making any threat of violence on social media.
Superintendent Monsees later issue a statement that read in part:
“As a precaution, we will have several officers from the Peculiar and Raymore police departments as well as the Cass County Sherriff’s office at our schools today. Any students involved in generating false rumors regarding school safety will be addressed through our discipline policy. We appreciated the cooperation of local law enforcement to help ensure we have a safe school day.”
A parent FOX 4 spoke with on Thursday appreciated the efforts to inform by both the school district and law enforcement.
“Parents need to be informed of what`s going on whether there is a direct threat or not, to be able to make that decision for themselves and for their children about what is best. Because you definitely have to take these things seriously,” said mom Jessi Wood.
Watch a previous report in the video player below.