The Ansonia High School student accused of authoring an anonymous threat to shoot up the school confessed to writing the post but said “he had no intention of shooting inside the school and had no access to any guns.”
The details come from an arrest warrant on file at Superior Court in Derby, where 19-year-old Giancarlos Diaz faces a felony and two misdemeanors in connection to the threat.
Diaz pleaded not guilty to the charges — first-degree threatening, second-degree threatening, and breach of peace — at Superior Court in Derby Friday (June 17), after which Judge Peter Brown continued the case to Aug. 5.
Diaz was released after his June 3 arrest on a $5,000 nonsurety bond.
His lawyer, Bradford Barneys, declined to comment on the case Tuesday (June 21).
According to the arrest warrant filed by Ansonia School Resource Officer Michael Barry, several students approached Barry and showed him the threatening post on the “After School” smartphone app that read “im shooting it tomorrow deadass im tired of being bullied.”
The school was put into lockdown and police responded to maintain a presence as schools dismissed that afternoon.
Police reached out to an employee of the “After School” app who provided the latitude and longitude for the user who made the threat, as well as several other threatening posts and comments that the app had blocked for containing “inappropriate content.”
“i’m tired of all these (expletive) guys bullying me in done i’m (expletive) done tomorrow will be the last of all you guys,” one of the blocked posts read.
Those comments prompted officials to close the city’s schools the next day.
“Based on the discovery of the blocked posts, in particular the additional shooting comment, a decision was made to close all the schools in Ansonia on 5/24/16 while the police department continued to investigate and attempt to identify the person responsible,” the warrant says.
Armed with the geographical coordinates provided by the app’s creator, the warrant says cops fired up Google Earth and learned that the location was on Burke Street, where Diaz lived.
Police eventually interviewed Diaz in person at the police station, where he allegedly “admitted to sending the threatening comment and all the blocked posts.”
The warrant did not delve into any details regarding the bullying cited by Diaz’s alleged threats, and his lawyer would not offer comment.
But the threat — and the topic of bullying in general — became the focus of an emotional school board meeting last month at which several students and parents asked school officials to do more.
They responded by holding an anti-bullying seminar this month with police, and schools Superintendent Carol Merlone said additional programs would be offered as students return to school this fall.
Click here to read more from a previous story.
