According to The New York Times, one brave soul and Julian Edelman reacted fast enough to stop a potential school shooter last month.
Edleman was in Texas visiting his former teammate Danny Amendola when he received a direct message on his Instagram account. “Dude, there is a kid in your comment section says he s going to shoot up a school, I think you should alert the authority,” read the message. On Instagram, messages from people who the user does not follow are usually sent to a “message request” screen. There is no doubt that Edelman’s message request center is filled with thousands of fans who seek to communicate with the superstar, but luckily, the wide-receiver was able to pick out this urgent message from the rest.
Referencing the Parkland, FL shooting that occurred on Valentines Day, Edelman told the Times, “With the emotions of what happened, and I have a kid now, I said, holy Toledo, what is going on?” He then reached out to Shannen Moen, who is his assistant, up in Boston. Moen scanned through the thousands of comments on Edelman’s page before she found the comment in question, “I’m going to shoot my school up watch the news.”
Moen alerted police, who were able to trace the comment back to an IP address in Port Huron, Michigan. Police in the “Wolverine State” were alerted, and they headed to the house where the IP address originated. Police arrived at the home and found a 14-year old boy who admitted to writing the comment online. Authorities also found two rifles that belonged to his mother in the home. The boy was detained and charged with making a false threat of terrorism.
“Thankfully, this kid said something,” stated Edelman about the child who originally alerted him to the potential shooting. “We’re going to send him something, a care package, just for his work. He’s the real hero.”
