3 Salem juveniles charged for allegedly making fake school threat 911 calls

Three Salem juveniles are facing charges after they allegedly called 911 over 20 times to make fake threats against Salem schools.

The three juveniles are each being charged with making fake phone calls to 911 and with making threats to cause public alarm, Salem police told Boston.com over the phone Sunday.

Salem police said in a press release that on Friday, they received a series of anonymous 911 calls threatening to stage a shooting attack at Collins Middle School.

The department said it assessed the threats and determined that they weren’t credible, but out of an abundance of caution, it increased police presence at all Salem schools that day.

Throughout Friday evening and into the early morning hours Saturday, the Department said, it received over 20 anonymous 911 calls threatening various acts of violence. The callers also taunted police to try and catch them.

Due to the call volume, several of the 911 calls were routed to the Marblehead Police Department, police said.

Investigation into the calls determined that they had been placed from a deactivated cell phone that was still capable of dialing 911. Based on information gleaned from the calls, Salem police were able to obtain a general location of the callers.

At approximately 2:12 a.m. Saturday morning, officers identified three juveniles, all residents of Salem, as being responsible for making the threatening calls.

“The Salem Police Department takes any threats directed against our schools and our school children seriously, and criminal behavior such as the anonymous 911 calls will be thoroughly investigated,” the department wrote in the release.

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