Quebec teen arrested for alleged Internet threats
Updated Mon. Sep. 18 2006 11:29 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Quebec provincial police arrested a 15-year-old boy early this morning for allegedly making threats over the Internet against fellow students at a Montreal-area high school.
The teen allegedly used the website vampirefreaks.com -- the same site Kimveer Gill used before his shooting rampage at Dawson College last week.
The boy, a Westwood high school student in Hudson, Que., is still being interviewed by police.
"As far as we're concerned we're going to be looking through his house, looking for firearms or if he had access to them," Quebec provincial police spokesperson Jayson Gauthier told CTV Newsnet.
"We're also going to be seizing any materials," including software and Internet files, that may shed light on whether he wanted to act out on his school, or if it was a sick joke.
Gauthier said police became aware of the threats because of help from the public.
"Yesterday, several phone calls came in on the tip line, telling us that we should look at this individual closely," Gauthier said.
He said police didn't want to take any chances of a copycat incident from happening, so "therefore we proceeded with an arrest."
Police officers went to the boy's school Monday morning to reassure students and parents.
He was arrested at his home in Saint-Clet, just southwest of Montreal.
Gauthier did not reveal what the boy wrote or whether he had access to weapons.
"But nonetheless, we've seen on that site and other sites where people are posting best wishes for (Gill), saying that this person, this individual was a hero," he said.
"There's no other way to treat this but to take it very seriously."
While police are doing their best to track Internet threats, added Gauthier, he said they will continue to need help from the public.
"We can't police all the sites, and we're going to need the public's help to crack down on these individuals."
