Florida authorities Monday released the mugshot and arrest footage of a 10-year-old boy accused of threatening to shoot up his school, with the local sheriff calling the move just desserts for a suspected criminal.
“I did a campaign: Fake threat, real consequence,” Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno told W Radio in Colombia. “While I understand the boy is 10 years old, his brain’s not fully developed, he’s a juvenile, I have to tell you: When a 10-year-old presses a trigger, the aftermath is the same regardless of the age.”
The sheriff’s office posted video to Facebook showing Daniel Isaac Marquez — a fifth-grader at Patriot Elementary School in Cape Coral — being arrested Saturday for the alleged text-message threat, which was forwarded to deputies by a tipster May 28.
Daniel was shown being led off with his hands cuffed behind his back while dressed in blue Crocs and a camouflage, hooded, zip-up sweatshirt and matching shorts.
Marceno spoke about the baby-faced suspect to W Radio, saying Daniel told a friend in a text message about “wads of cash” and to “get ready” for him to carry out the mass shooting.
“I scammed my friend,” the boy allegedly wrote in the text, which included a Google image of money, according to an arrest report.
Daniel then allegedly shared an image of four assault rifles he said he bought and told his buddy to “get ready for water day” — referencing a recent school-sponsored event in which students participate in water activities.
“We don’t wait 1 second,” Marceno said of looking into the boy’s threat. “We investigate every threat as if it’s real.
“We have zero tolerance,” he said. “Our children are going to be safe no matter what.
“So, what we need to do is, I beg the parents to sit with your children … We need to do everything we can as a team to prevent these types of issues and not ignore the red flags.”
The boy was charged as a juvenile with making a written threat to conduct a mass shooting, Marceno said.
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