Adult female identified as responsible for social media threat

By Doug Spoon, Editor

Menifee Police have identified an adult female as the person responsible for a social media threat made Tuesday that mentions Paloma Valley High School.

The 20-year-old female, who was not named in an MPD press release, posted on Instagram a short video showing a person’s legs with two apparent firearms visible and some text that included a reference to Paloma Valley. Captain Dave Gutierrez said the suspect has been arrested previously for similar actions, but that “detectives determined they lacked the necessary legal elements to make a criminal arrest” in this case.

That determination was based, he said, on detectives’ interpretation of state penal code 422, which requires for an arrest that the threat be “so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for his or her own safety or for his or her immediate family’s safety.”

But although the suspect was not arrested, she does face other potential consequences, Gutierrez said.

“MPD is currently working with the District Attorney and the Courts to ensure the female is held accountable for creating the post and receives needed services,” Gutierrez said in the press release. He said he was not in position to discuss what potential services they might be.

Gutierrez said the post was made about 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday. By early evening, it had been reposted and discussed several times on various social media sites, with many parents saying they were holding their student out of school because of the threat.

The first email sent out by school authorities stated that police were working to identify the suspect but did not deem the threat credible. Later in the evening, an updated email was sent out saying a person had been identified and contacted by police.

As a precaution, Menifee Police Department had officers present on the Paloma Valley campus today, and no incidents were reported.

Gutierrez said he would like to bring to residents’ attention the final paragraph of the press release, which reads as follows:

“We would like to ask a favor from the community. When these types of posts are seen, please immediately contact school administration and law enforcement. Reposting the post with unsubstantiated/unverified information is not helpful to the investigation and causes an increased amount of fear and anxiety.”