L.A. County 12-year-old arrested in connection with San Diego County high school bomb threat

A 12-year-old resident of Los Angeles County was arrested Saturday morning on suspicion of calling in a bomb threat to San Marcos High School on Friday, prompting the cancellation of classes, San Diego County sheriff’s officials said.

The call came in about 8 a.m. as several students were arriving at the campus — first period starts at 8:30 a.m.

They were turned away while sheriff’s deputies and other law enforcement officers — some with bomb-sniffing dogs — swept the grounds of the large campus in northern San Diego County.

Classes were canceled. Students and staffers who were already on campus were sent to a soccer field on school grounds during the search. A lockdown was in place until around 10:30 a.m.

That same day, sheriff’s detectives identified a juvenile suspect in Los Angeles County. On Saturday, with assistance from Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies, San Marcos detectives found the phone used to make the bomb threat in the bedroom of the 12-year-old child, sheriff’s officials said.

The juvenile was arrested in connection with the incident and later released to the mother. No additional information was released, because the suspect is a child.

Winkley writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune. This article was distributed by Tribune Content Agency.