On January 30, 2013, Tucson Police Department detectives expanded an investigation regarding threats made via social media against at least one student at Flowing Wells High School.
The initial report had been taken by a patrol officer. However, recognizing the need to eliminate any potential for the threat to materialize into actions on the part of the suspect(s), the detectives immediately began working to further the investigation.
The parent of a Flowing Wells High School student notified police that threats had been posted to her son’s Facebook profile page. The threats were specific in nature, threatening to harm not only the student, but also other students and teachers as well as threatening to “shoot up” Flowing Wells High School. The patrol personnel began working to identify the person associated with the Facebook profile that was utilized to make the threat posting.
Detectives picked up the investigation and immediately went to Flowing Wells High school to learn more about the potential user(s) of the Facebook profile that was used to send the threats. While there, the detectives learned that other students at the school had also experienced similar threats. The additional threats also appeared to initiate from the same Facebook profile. Thanks to the quick work of the detectives and cooperation of Facebook company administrators, the detectives were successfully able to track down the Internet Protocol (IP) address for the person(s) using the Facebook profile to post threatening statements onto the Facebook profile pages of each victim. In total, there were 5 students that had threatening messages posted to their Facebook profile pages, all of which generated from the same Facebook profile/account.
Initially, it was believed that a student at another school might have been the person posting the threatening messages.
However, during the course of the investigation, the detectives were able to determine that the student at the other school was merely a victim as well. That student had not authored the threatening messages. Instead, his identity had been utilized by the actual suspects in creating a “fake” Facebook profile to use when posting the threats to the Facebook profiles of students from Flowing Wells High School.
Ultimately, the detectives determined that two suspects had victimized a total of six different students, including the student whose identity was utilized. With the exception of the student, who had his identity used without his knowledge, the suspects and other victims were all students of Flowing Wells High School. One of the suspects has been identified as Charles Schaming (17-years old). The other suspect’s name is being withheld temporarily for investigative reasons.
Charles was charged with two felony charges and 24 misdemeanor charges. The felony charges included 1 count of Interference With or Disruption of an Educational Institution and 1 count of Taking the Identity of Another Person. The misdemeanor charges included multiple counts of Harassment, Threats and Intimidation, Disorderly Conduct, and Use of an Electronic Communication to Terrify, Intimidate, Threaten or Harass. The second suspect was charged with the same offenses. However, he was charged with a total of eight misdemeanor charges in addition to the two felony offenses due to the fact that he was not involved in the posting of threatening messages to the Facebook profiles of all of the victims.
The Tucson Police Department is confident that each victim and suspect associated with this investigation has been identified.