20-year-old man accused of making online threat to students at Riverside University HS

MILWAUKEE -- A 20-year-old man is arrested in connection to an online threat directed at Riverside University High School in Milwaukee. Milwaukee Public Schools confirmed the suspect is a current student at the school.

Milwaukee police set up patrols outside Riverside Wednesday. Inside the school, the hallways were noticeably empty.

"Usually, my classes are 25 to 30 kids. Well, in most of my classes. There wasn't even more than 10 or 12 of us. The school has been very quiet," said Sakoiya Johnson, a senior at Riverside University High School.

Johnson said she was among less than half of the student body who came to school Wednesday. This, after posts circulated on social media Tuesday that one of her peers threatened to shoot fellow students the next day.

"I know he probably was just, either someone convinced him to do that or he was just upset about something -- and he didn't know how to express it and so he just did that. And now he's in trouble," Johnson said.

It is trouble many parents believe is well-deserved.

K'Dee Hoffman said her 15-year-old son showed her more than two dozen photos from the suspect's Snapchat that depict a bed full of weapons and specific details about who he planned to target.

"There was another photo, there was a person that got arrested with another young man. And underneath it said, this is my partner in crime," Hoffman said.

When police announced the suspect had been arrested, Hoffman said there was no mention of anyone else in custody. That prompted her to make the difficult decision to keep her child home for the rest of the week.

"So that was my concern. Is one got arrested, and if this is his partner, why didn't he get arrested as well?" Hoffman said. "I always put safety first. I understand he needs an education, but I want my child to come home safely to me every day."

People who saw the posts say the suspect indicated he was making the threats because he was being bullied.

Despite the scare, there were no incidents reported at the school on Wednesday.

Riverside University High School