Henrico County authorities have sent an 11-year-old child from Virginia to Florida to appear in court after he was allegedly making threats against schools and swatting calls.
According to Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly, the boy threatened over 20 different schools within his jurisdiction in May. According to Staly, the child called many emergency contact centres, saying he would carry out a mass shooting and had planted bombs in the schools.
“Obviously, as these continued, there was a lot of fear in the community, and many parents were keeping their children at home instead of sending them to school for the last seven to 10 days of school, causing massive lockdowns at every school every time this happened,” Staly said.
He added that the calls were traced to the young person’s Henrico County residence by investigators. The sheriff’s office brought hundreds of charges against him, including 28 felonies, following a 10-week investigation.
Videos of animal abuse that Staly called “cruel and disgusting” were also found on electronics that were taken from the child’s home.
“Quite frankly, he was escalating his criminal behaviour into a very violent tendency,” Staly said.
Since then, the 11-year-old has been extradited by the authorities to Florida, where he is being held in a detention facility while the legal process is ongoing.
According to Staly, a juvenile interstate compact court in Florida authorised a countrywide pickup for the child.
“This is the first time in my career that we have extradited somebody back this young that has not been charged as an adult,” he said.
It is quite uncommon to extradite a youngster of this age, according to legal commentator Todd Stone of CBS 6.
“Normally in a situation like this, you might see things play out first in his home state, rather than extradite him somewhere because that is a pretty extreme measure for an 11-year-old,” Stone said.
In response to questions on the extradition, Staly stated in a comment to the Daytona Beach News-Journal that “we might not be here today, but they didn’t” if the child’s parent and “authorities in Virginia were doing their job.”
When questioned about the meaning of his statement, Staly stated that while his office was appreciative of Henrico Police’s assistance with the inquiry, they were already aware of the boy before he was accused of making swatting calls.
“They were aware of him and knew him, which indicates that they had had other interactions with him. I don’t know what those were. I know that another state contacted him before my detectives arrived up there on one of their swatting calls, and basically told him just to knock it off. If you’re going to allow him to get away with that, they’re going to continue to escalate,” Staly said.
Speaking on behalf of the Henrico Police Department, Karina Bolster stated that officers visited the child’s residence three times in November and December of last year in response to “suspicious situations,” but she could not provide any information or specifics about what transpired.
“Since these initial calls for service, detectives have continued to investigate the cases and consult with the Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office,” Bolster said.
Shannon Taylor, the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Henrico, said that at the time, the police had not notified her office of those three events.
She stated that law enforcement will determine if the behaviour in question qualifies as delinquent conduct on its own and will decide which information to share with her office.
Taylor stated that when it comes to felonies and occasionally misdemeanours, police always confer with her office.
Taylor stated, “Maybe we could’ve had a different response” if she had been informed by police about the three service requests in November and December of 2023.
Nevertheless, she stated that, in light of the case’s circumstances, she didn’t concur with Sheriff Staly’s assessment.
According to her, her office will make sure that the child’s charges in Florida are handled in a way that takes into account the actions that led to the previous police responses in Henrico.
“I think what Henrico is doing is very reasonable under the circumstances because you don’t need to punish an 11-year-old severely in multiple jurisdictions for the same conduct,” Stone said. “The focus of [the juvenile court system] is to rehabilitate and to get services for these young folks who need services. It also recognizes that the juvenile brain has not developed enough to make adult decisions for the most part. So that’s why, normally, those cases would be handled locally and in a situation where they get services.”
According to Staly, there’s a chance the boy will complete his sentence in Virginia.
After reviewing the information gathered by his office, Staly declared that the youngster requires “strong handling by the courts,” which may involve in-custody treatment as well as intensive counselling.
He described himself as a “law and order sheriff,” whose duty it is to hold people accountable for crimes they commit, regardless of their age.
“It might be aggressive in Virginia. It’s not aggressive in Florida,” Staly said. “If you commit a crime in this county, we’re going to investigate it, and we’re going to do everything we can to bring you to face the consequences of your actions.”
The Florida prosecutor in charge of the case was contacted by CBS 6, but they did not respond.
The juvenile’s public defender’s office stated it was unable to provide a statement.
