Teenager charged with threatening to ‘cleanse’ school of LGBT students
Jonathan Radford tweeted a bomb threat against LGBT and non-Christian students
By Steve Brown
Words: Steve Brown
A teenager has been charged over allegedly threating to “cleanse” his school of LGBT students.
Jonathan Radford, 18, allegedly tweeted a bomb threat against LGBT students at his South Carolina school and October 18, he was arrested after police believe the teen threatened to “shoot up” the school and made deaths threats.
Police were called to the school after students reported seeing the bomb threats which were sent to students via direct message on an anonymous Twitter account.
The account tweeted: “The ultimate cleansing of all anti-straight and non-Christians will happen today at 8.10 at James F Byrnes High School.”
The private message read: “I know u and ur little group of friends are apart of a lgbt and I hate the lgbt community.
“So I plan on bombing and shooting up your school today to cleanse everyone that’s not straight or Christian. [sic]”
He was tracked via his IP address after the social media site was alerted to the threats.
Radford was arrested and charged with a first-degree bomb threat – which carries a sentence of one year in prison and maximum of 10 years.
He remains in custody, according to public records.