COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Police have charged the person who sent text messages to Cobb County 911 claiming a shooter was inside Sprayberry High School.
Detectives placed 17-year-old Ladaisha Gibbons of Marietta, Georgia under arrest charging her with a variety of charges to include: false report of a crime, disruption of a public school and unlawful conduct during a 911 call.
The 911 center received the message Monday afternoon using their new text-to-911 system that’s only a few months old. Officers say the message claimed there were shots fired at the school.
Parents Jamila Dennery said she received a cryptic text from her son and ran straight to the school.
“(He said) that they were on code yellow, that he was fine and the lights were off in the classroom,” Dennery told Channel 2’s Ross Cavitt.
Police responded to the 911 text within minutes and swept the school but didn’t find anything at the school.
https://twitter.com/RossCavittWSB/status/661254261603475456
Officers say it’s not the first time the system has been abused. In most cases, like this one, police were able to track down the offender.
“They need to be punished. They need to go to jail and spend some time,” parent DeShah Fields said.
Fields is furious because the situation ruined the school day at Sprayberry and put parents into panic mode when their kids started texting.
“We panicked immediately. My sister-in-law has panic attacks and we had to stop immediately and say prayers because if we didn't she would have probably crashed,” Fields said.
Officers later found Gibbons, the alleged texter, off campus.
The scare kept dozens of officers kept off their beats.
“It’s manpower intensive and backs up the calls for the police department,” Cobb County school police Chief Ron Storey said.
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