Three middle schoolers from different schools charged with felonies, threatening mass shootings

It’s been a scary week for Florida’s middle school students and parents; and unfortunately, the scares have nothing to do with Halloween – but with children threatening to commit mass shootings at their schools.

“Make no mistake, any and all threats will be thoroughly investigated,” stated Sheriff Carmine Marceno of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office in Fort Myers.

 “Even fake threats result in real consequences. I will do whatever it takes to make sure that our children are safe when they go to school.”

On October 27th, deputies with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office responded to several homes in Lehigh Acres after a threat to commit a shooting was posted on social media.  Due to the threat targeting students at Lehigh Acres Middle School, the Sheriff’s Office Youth Services Criminal Investigations Division assumed that investigation.

Detectives learned that a 7th grade student, Daniel Zellmer, age 12, was responsible for posting the violent threat. A search warrant for Zellmer’s home, located on Prospect Avenue, was subsequently executed. Detectives located two airsoft guns in Zellmer’s room and several firearms locked away in a safe elsewhere in the home.

At the conclusion of the investigation, detectives arrested the youngster and charged him with Threat to Conduct a Mass Shooting.

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In a separate incident, also on October 27, the Volusia Sheriff’s Office announced that a 12-year-old student at Heritage Middle School in Deltona was arrested after he told another student he was going to “shoot up the school.”  The student, Marcus Robinson, told Volusia sheriff’s deputies and the school principal that he got angry during gym class when other students made him get off an exercise machine he was using.

Robinson said he walked over to his friend and told him: “This is why I want to shoot up the school.”

When deputies asked why he made that statement, Robinson stated he didn’t mean anything by it and said “it was a joke.”

However, when deputies contacted the friend and his mother about the incident, the student said in an interview that Robinson stated: “I’m gonna shoot up the school. I am not kidding, and you are gonna be the first.” The friend stated he reported the incident to his teachers when he changed classes.

The youngster was arrested for Making A Threat to Discharge A Destructive Device (Florida Statute 790.62), which is a felony. He was transported to the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) in Daytona Beach.

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And in a third incident taking place on the same day, another middle school student was arrested for making a school threat. Tuesday morning, a seventh grader at Galaxy Middle School in Deltona was arrested for making several threats on the social media platform Snapchat to shoot up his school. That student, identified as 13-year-old Ronaldo Dwarka, was also transported to DJJ.

Dwarka made multiple threats to bring a gun to school and shoot people. WFTV shared several statements by the deputies regarding the messages the student posted:

“It happening tomorrow and Friday for dose you survive. I’m not (expletive) around anymore.”

“After that ima give the gun to the other kid let him finish the job” and “Js watch yuh back tomorrow.”

At the end of the chat, the student stated: “That my last day there tomorrow.”

Dwarka was charged with Written Threat to Kill or Injure, and, Making A False Report Of A Bomb or Explosive Weapon Of Mass Destruction – both felonies.

(Sources:  Lee County Sheriff’s Office & Volusia Sheriff’s Office)

~ Posted by: Richard Webster, Ace News Today   /   Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter

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