MESA, Ariz. — A 13-year-old boy was taken into custody in Arizona today after allegedly threatening to “shoot up the school.”
The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office said the threatening Snapchat post was detected on Tuesday and immediately reported to the FBI.
The student who allegedly posted the threat attended Yavapai County schools before moving to Mesa to live with another family, the sheriff’s office said.
Mesa police learned the boy may have returned to Yavapai County and contacted the sheriff’s office. The boy was later found on the campus of a local school just before classes started. The boy told deputies he had no intention of carrying out the threat and was just “playing around.”
YCSO said the boy was taken to a juvenile detention center. The boy’s family told YCSO that the boy was not known to have obtained any firearms in the home.
Locals refer to the Phoenix metropolitan area as “The Valley.” It is considered the largest metropolitan area in the Southwest.
In addition to Phoenix, the Valley is made up of a variety of other major cities, including:
- mesa
- chandler
- scottsdale
- Tempe
- glendale
- surprise
- Peoria
- gilbert
- El Mirage
- Avondale
- Lichfield Park
- goodyear
- buckeye
Whether a city is in the “East Valley” or “West Valley” depends on where the city is in relation to Phoenix.
According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the total population of Valley cities is 4,845,832. This makes it the 11th largest metropolitan area in the country, behind the Boston and Atlanta areas.
How large is Maricopa County?
According to the 2020 Census, Maricopa County is the fourth largest county in the United States with a population of 4,485,414 people.
The county contains approximately 63% of Arizona’s population and covers an area of 9,224 square miles. This makes the county larger than seven U.S. states: Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.
One of the largest park systems in the United States is also located in Maricopa County. The county has an estimated 120,000 acres of open space parks, including hundreds of miles of trails, nature centers, and campgrounds.
The county seat is Phoenix, which is also the state capital and the fifth most populous city in the United States according to the census.
The county is named after the Maricopa or Piipaash Native American tribe.
