After Threatening Mass Shooting, Arrested Student Says He Was Joking

Gary Bai
By Gary Bai
June 2, 2022US News
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After Threatening Mass Shooting, Arrested Student Says He Was Joking
Mug shot of Jacob Lawlor, 18, a senior at Bradford Preparatory School in Charlott, N.C., obtained from the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office website on June 2, 2022. (Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office)

An arrested high school senior who threatened to “shoot” at his school’s graduation ceremony said in court in defense of himself that he was “just joking” about the threat.

The 18-year-old Jacob Lawlor, a student at the Bradford Preparatory High School, was arrested Wednesday after threatening over text to commit a mass shooting at his high school’s graduation ceremony, WSOC Channel 9 reported.

Police arrested Lawlor on Wednesday upon learning from a tip that Lawlor “unlawfully, willfully and feloniously did threaten to shoot students attending the Bradford Preparatory School High School Graduation,” according to a warrant obtained by Channel 9 reporter Genevieve Curtis.

According to the warrant, Lawlor sent the following phrases to another student at the high school before the graduation ceremony: “I say we all gang up and protest the graduation,” “or shoot that [expletive] up,” “[just kidding],” and “unless [you’re] down.”

Lawlor was reportedly upset that he could not attend the graduation ceremony because he had not completed a math class.

According to a search on the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office website, police arrested Lawlor at around 10 p.m. on May 31.

Channel 9 reported that Lawlor was released under a $2,500 bond on the morning of June 2, the day of the graduation ceremony, via an order of a magistrate.

However, this release order was not compliant with state law, which does not permit an individual charged with threatening mass violence to argue for conditions of release in front of a magistrate; such a case must be heard in front of a judge.

After an emergency hearing in the afternoon of June 2, a judge ordered Lawlor to be taken back into police custody until noon on June 3, the news station reported.

Daniel Redford, with the Fraternal Order of Police for Mecklenburg County, told the local news station that the fact that Lawlor was released on the morning of the graduation ceremony was “a failure at the highest level within our judicial office here in Mecklenburg county.”

“God forbid if he would have went to that graduation tonight and did exactly what he said, how would this magistrate feel knowing he let him out by breaking the law,” Redford said.

“This isn’t something we can forget about, laugh about and just say, ‘I hope it doesn’t happen,’ because that’s when they do happen,” the officer said.

The June 2 graduation ceremony at Atrium Health Ballpark is set to proceed with police presence, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department confirmed to Channel 9.

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