ST JOHNS, Fla. — Three Creekside High School students have been arrested as they are accused of creating a "lethal hit list," "hit list" and making a "credible threat" against other students, according to a Facebook post from the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office.
SJCSO says their Major Crimes Unit detectives were consulted and the decision was made to charge 14-year-old Ron Quinones, 14-year-old Kiryl Nerad and 15-year-old Nikita Calantropo with written threats to kill or do bodily harm as well as unlawful use of a two-way communications device.
"They had students circled on pictures, as well as actually students' addresses. Also, they had an aerial views of the Creekside High School with areas basically circled that would have been good areas of an attack on these individuals in the list," St. Johns County Sheriff Robert Hardwick said.
The St. Johns County Sheriff's Office says on September 29, it was notified of suspicious text messages, but at the time, they were only allegations with no evidence at the time. The phones of two students were taken by law enforcement. On October 2, the students were suspended by the school district. The suspension took effect on Tuesday. Detailed text messages, hit lists and photographs were discovered on October 4. The text messages discovered by deputies All three students were arrested on October 5.
The group text messages discovered by deputies discussed the identification of targeted students including photographs with faces circled, aerial photographs of Creekside High School with an on-campus location circled and the use of firearms. According to one of the boy's arrest report, the group chat included a schedule of classes of the targeted students and their home addresses as well.
It is not known how many students were targeted but Hardwick said all victims have been notified.
"The goal was to arrest the ones that were accountable for this plan that we identified without any question at all of whom the three were involved before this plan was actually carried out," Hardwick said.
Police say the "hit list" was created for students the group wanted to kill. The arrested students formed "The United Boyopolis Socialist Republic," as a "Russian Communist Group," due to being bullied by other students, one of the boy's arrest report states. The sheriff's office says the three boys assumed a logo and established that they would place the logo on a patch to be worn as an identifying insignia. The sheriff's office also says that the boys created an application for potential group membership and actively sought to recruit members into their organization. The FBI is involved in the investigation.
During one group chat text between the three boys, police say one of the boys stated, "I'm nothing without a weapon. Guns are preferred." In another group chat text, police say one of the boys stated, "I am bringing my AK-47 tomorrow," as another boy responded and said, "me too."
"One thing we tell our parents is, you have to get involved and hold our kids accountable and responsible for what goes on on these electronic devices. These children now have access to stuff that we as children didn't have access to, which is the world on these things that they can carry in their pockets or purses," Sheriff Hardwick said.
St. Johns County Sheriff's Lieutenant Joseph Lukaszewski told First Coast News that all three students had their detention hearings Friday morning and that they are all ordered to "remain held secure in detention for 21 days or until further order of the court."
If students need to report a threat, they can use FortifyFL online by clicking here or download the app.
Sheriff Rob Hardwick also released the following statement on the Facebook post:
“Nothing is more important to me than the safety of our children and this is another example of the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office commitment to protect the more than 50,000 students who attend classes on a daily basis. I am proud of the youth services deputies assigned to this investigation, who acted quickly on the information that was provided and prevented a potential tragedy,” said Sheriff Rob Hardwick.
The three Creekside High School students were taken into custody at the St. Johns County Jail and transported to the Department of Juvenile Justice in Volusia County and will be in detention for 21 days.