Schools locked down after brothers post ‘shoot up’ joke threats online
Two brothers have been handed community orders after sending schools into lockdown by sharing an image that read: ‘Feeling cute, might go and shoot up a school’.
Laurie Patrick Coleman, 27, and Saul Dre Coleman, 20, from Newtown, Wales, posted a picture showing an AK47 superimposed on two men to social media in September.
The threatening image became Laurie Coleman’s profile picture at around 7am on September 18 as part of ‘banter’ he was having with friends, Welshpool Magistrates Court heard.
It was then shared by Saul Coleman to the ‘Welshpool and Newtown ‘Buy and Sell’ page’, which has around 8,000 members, County Times reports.
Newtown High School was locked down after rumours circulated on social media that someone was outside the school ‘acting suspiciously with a gun’.
Hundreds of parents were left panicked when they were alerted that their children were being kept indoors by teachers.
However, the two brothers had already been arrested by the time the school shut down.
Both men were given a 12-month community and ordered to do 50 days of unpaid work after they were found guilty of sending menacing communications.
Saul Coleman must pay £505, while Laurie Coleman must pay £445.
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