Overview

• Police say the 16-year-old posted around 10:15–10:17 a.m. that he would “shoot the school up” while at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Bayside, Queens.
• The FBI’s National Threat Operations Center notified the NYPD at 11:33 a.m., providing the Instagram username, date of birth, a phone number, and geolocation tied to the school.
• Officers and school staff identified the student around 11:45 a.m., confirmed the account by calling the linked number that rang on his phone, and obtained parental consent to search.
• A loaded 9mm Taurus GX4 with 13 rounds was found in the student’s backpack, and he was taken into custody without incident; he has no prior criminal history and was not named because he is a minor.
• Officials said Cardozo High School does not use weapons scanning and reported no gun incidents in the past year, as authorities praised the interagency response and noted the investigation and charging decisions are ongoing.