Former UNF student arrested after threatening to commit mass shooting at local high school

Hannah Lee, Editor-in-Chief

20-year-old, Wesley Zane Twiggs, was arrested Saturday morning after making threats to “shoot up” his former high school – Fernadina Beach High School, according to police.

Wesley Twiggs. Photo from Nassau County.

Twiggs confessed to police that he made two anonymous threats on a chat site on Dec. 30. The threats stating “My name is Wesley Twiggs and I am going to shoot up Fernandina Beach High School on January 15th. I will be on the news … so you better keep these messages if you want anyone to believe that this conversation took place.”

Screenshots of these threats were captured by two different witnesses, both from outside of Florida. The threats were reported to the FBI Tipline and referred by the FBI to the Fernandina Beach Police Department for investigation.

Twiggs was charged with a second degree felony and was later released on a $25,000 bond.

No firearms or ammunition have been recovered and no evidence has been obtained to indicate that Twiggs had access to firearms, or had made actual plans to carry out his threats, according to police, however detectives are continuing their investigation.

Twiggs no longer attends UNF, according to the University.

In 2018, Twiggs submitted a film to UNF’s Campus Movie Fest. His film “The Cost of Hiding” shows a young man in college dealing with suicidal thoughts on the phone with his mother, hiding his pain.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PzZEOnP1M0[/embedyt]

Anyone with information should contact Detective Stephen Moreno at (904) 310-3222.

 

*Correction 8:25 p.m.: A former version of this article stated that Twiggs was a current student at UNF. He is no longer a student and the current article reflects that.

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