Teen Charged for School Bomb Threats Across RI

NEWPORT, RI—A local 16-year-old has been charged in connection with a rash of bomb threats that caused terror and disruption to schools and businesses across Rhode Island over the past two months.

Rhode Island State Police Major Joseph F. Philbin confirmed that the juvenile, from Newport, was arrested and arraigned on Friday on 18 total counts.

The juvenile was charged with 15 counts of making bomb threats and similar false reports and two counts of extortion and blackmail. He is also facing one count of accessing a computer for fraud.

Philbin said that the arrest is the result of strong detective work from the state police’s computer crimes unit and the Newport Police Department.

“We actually didn’t think we’d get anyone at first,” Philbin said, but tireless investigative work by police led them to the 16-year-old suspect.

The investigation is ongoing, police said, and there may be accomplices involved in the scheme, which targeted not only schools, but also businesses, Philbin said.

In all, the juvenile is suspected of triggering threats to schools and businesses in Providence, Bristol, Newport, Warwick, East Providence, Cranston, Tiverton and Middletown.

The state police last week indicated that the threats, which were delivered by phone calls to school officials and police departments, originated from Russia.

The threats typically were made by a computer-generated voice that threatened specific acts of violence and named individual schools. The mentioning of specific details made it obvious that the perpetrator or perpetrators were using some type of offshore system that allowed someone to insert names and details into the blanks of a prepared threat message.

Schools were forced to cancel classes and dismiss students early, or put school facilities in lockdown as police searched the buildings for bombs after each call. Students and businesses were evacuated and the threats caused “inordinate use of law enforcement and fire service resources both within the state and outside the state,” Philbin said.

Philbin said that the juvenile used one of the systems and tracing to the source is difficult because the data is “bounced around from here to there.”

The investigation began about two months ago when the threats started pouring in. The break in the case came on Friday when when state and Newport police detectives along with members of the computer crimes unit interviewed the juvenile at Rogers High School for his alleged involvement.

The juvenile is now being held at the Rhode Island Training School and will appear before a judge in Family Court on Wednesday for a bail hearing.

A conviction for making bomb threats and similar reports could result in a 10-year prison sentence. Extortion and blackmail convictions could result in a 15-year term and a fine of $25,000. Computer access for fraud carries a maximum of five years behind bars upon conviction.

This story is being updated.