NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- A 15-year-old ex-New Smyrna Beach High School student has been arrested on several felony charges after a Volusia County Sheriff’s Office investigation into a bomb threat he made on Twitter revealed plans to commit a mass school shooting, an agency spokesman said.
Devon Foster, of Edgewater, was arrested Monday afternoon and charged with four counts of making threats to discharge a destructive device and one count of making written threats to kill or do harm.
"Foster admitted that he was planning the bombing and mass shooting," Volusia County Sheriff's spokesman Andrew Gant told Headline Surfer®. "Based on the Sheriff’s Office investigation, evidence seized and interviews, deputies believe the threat was credible. Foster is in custody today at the Volusia Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Daytona Beach. Investigators have concluded that he was acting alone."
"Foster admitted that he was planning the bombing and mass shooting," Volusia County Sheriff's spokesman Andrew Gant told Headline Surfer®. "Based on the Sheriff’s Office investigation, evidence seized and interviews, deputies believe the threat was credible. Foster is in custody today at the Volusia Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Daytona Beach. Investigators have concluded that he was acting alone."
The investigation started Sept. 4, when the Sheriff’s Office was alerted to a post on Foster’s Twitter account, which said: “One million retweets and I’ll blow up the school.”
The tweet was deleted less than a minute after it was posted. But it was followed by a tweet with a close-up photo of what appeared to be an open throat with white spots and the text: “strep throat, long weekend, suicidal and dangerous thoughts.”
Devon Foster expresses himelf on Twitter.Deputies learned a student was in the school nurse’s clinic around the time of the tweet, showing signs of strep throat. That student was Foster, and deputies tracked him down in class and questioned him.
"At the time, he denied that he was planning any violence – he was just posting shocking things on Twitter," Gant said. "Because of the serious nature of the threats, the Sheriff’s Office continued to investigate."
The Sheriff's spokesman said Foster was taken into custody under the Baker Act on Sept. 4, was expelled from New Smyrna Beach High and has been under the care of an outpatient behavioral health program ever since.
Deputies seized Foster’s phone for a forensic examination and extracted hundreds of pages of text messages, web postings and photos. “The majority of the pages from the cell phone extraction report outlined Devon Foster’s obsession with death, mass killings and school shootings (specifically the Columbine shooting),” an investigator wrote in the arrest affidavit.
Foster wrote multiple entries about how first responders and school administrators “always forget the explosives” and illustrated making and setting off pipe bombs in a specific location of the high school. He also wrote of studying video from the shootings at Columbine High School and posted several images of himself holding firearms. One was a handgun, and another was later determined to be a BB gun.
Deputies seized Foster’s phone for a forensic examination and extracted hundreds of pages of text messages, web postings and photos. “The majority of the pages from the cell phone extraction report outlined Devon Foster’s obsession with death, mass killings and school shootings (specifically the Columbine shooting),” an investigator wrote in the arrest affidavit.
Foster wrote multiple entries about how first responders and school administrators “always forget the explosives” and illustrated making and setting off pipe bombs in a specific location of the high school. He also wrote of studying video from the shootings at Columbine High School and posted several images of himself holding firearms. One was a handgun, and another was later determined to be a BB gun.
Deputies obtained a search warrant for Foster’s home and searched it Monday. And while the search warrant did not reveal any bomb-making materials, investigators believe Foster had the knowledge and capability to obtain the firearms and build the types of explosives he had researched and planned to use.
The Sheriff’s Office through a multi-jurisdictional Joint Terrorism Task Force worked closely with the FBI in investigating this case and preventing Foster from carrying out his plan, Gant said.