14-05-2025
Teenager arrested after making threats with ‘hate-bias overtones'
Police have
arrested
a teenager after he allegedly threatened students at a Hamilton Mountain
high school
.
The 18-year-old was arrested after he allegedly 'made threats to cause harm or death toward students' at Nora Frances Henderson Secondary School, police said in a news
release
Tuesday.
The threat, which according to officers, had 'some hate-bias overtones,' was also directed at a business in the area of Upper Wentworth Street and Mohawk Road East.
'It was a general threat toward a particular set of students,' said police spokesperson Const. Trevor McKenna.
He declined to share details, but said 'it was more of a general threat: 'I'm going to go do this.''
The teen arrested was also a student at the school, McKenna said.
McKenna said he can't confirm whether the business — a store — is any way connected to students or the school.
The teen was arrested 'without incident,' and faces a charge of uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm, the release reads. Police say there's no longer any concern for public safety.
He was arrested off school property, McKenna said.
It doesn't appear to be related to any 'retribution or a beef between students,' he said.
'This was an isolated situation not related to any other events at the school,' Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board spokesperson Allison Reynolds said in a message.
She also said there has been 'lots of support' for students and staff at the school.
Students at the Upper Sherman Avenue school have been connected to several violent incidents in recent months, including arrests related to
a BB gun and bear spray
,
interschool brawls
and a
car chase
that resulted in a fatal crash.
In October,
Jayden Russell
, a 15-year-old student at St. Jean de Brebeuf, was killed in a
high-speed crash
police said
stemmed from a conflict
between the Catholic high school and Henderson, its public counterpart about a kilometre away.
