LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (localmemphis.com) — Police departments across Arkansas are working to calm fears about an unverifiable threat of a school shooting was seen all across social media.
Late Sunday night, Arkansas State Police issued a statement that it was working with the FBI to investigate a threat of a school shooting. State police said they issued the information not as a warning but for general awareness after it started to circulate on social media.
According to ASP, no credible information or evidence has surfaced about the threat nor was a specific school identified in it.
Still, local police departments are issuing statements of theirown on social media.
In a Facebook post, West Memphis PD said it was aware of thethreat and said it was an “unsubstantiated rumor” forwarded by theFBI.
“All of our area schools are well protected and all of ourschool staff and police officers have been trained to protect the children ofour community,” the post read. “So send your kids to school this weekand rest easy knowing that they are in good hands!”
The Jonesboro Police Department provided further information onwhat notification they said the FBI sent out over the weekend.
That notification read that the FBI received a report of a schoolshooting threat that would happen in Arkansas on August 29th, one day after aseparate shooting would happen in Kentucky.
The threat was allegedly made through an online video game and thesource of it couldn’t be identified.
“No direct threats have been made to any of our local schooldistricts. We take the safety of our children very serious and will provide theproper security measures and work with our districts to achieve thisgoal,” Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliott wrote.
State police said if more specific or credible information isdiscovered, that information would be shared.
