Julia Eisen – WMAL News | October 25, 2023
Montgomery County has been plagued in recent weeks with a series of bomb threats at different high schools, including two this morning.
Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville was targeted three separate times by email threats this month and police have now identified a suspect.
Montgomery County Police shared that a 12-year-old boy confessed to the crime but there will be no arrest.
“It bothers me for the fact that we no longer have the ability to charge a juvenile with this type of crime, this type of delinquency,” Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones told WMAL News.
Under a new Maryland law, children under 13 can only be charged with offenses that would “constitute a crime of violence” under state statutes.
In a statement, Chief Jones said the child knew the law and knew that he or she could not be charged.
“We took police officers out on the streets to protect our community. Having to go and work with our school systems to go out and locate a fake bomb in reality. That’s the sadness of this situation,” Jones told WMAL News.
According to Jones, different stakeholders have been asking the legislature to reconsider the law in order to hold these children accountable.
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