The 13-year-old son of a controversial Florida data scientist was arrested Wednesday and accused of threatening to shoot up his former middle school.
The boy is the son of Rebekah Jones, a scientist and fierce critic of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who claimed she was fired from the state’s health department in 2020 for refusing to censor Florida’s Covid-19 numbers.
Her son, who is not being named as he is a minor, was charged with written or electronic threat to conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism, a second-degree felony, the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office arrest report said.
The arrest report shows that several students in the area of Navarre, Florida, reported seeing Jones’ son’s alleged threatening memes and messages on Snapchat and Discord — but his mother suggests that his arrest was politically motivated.
Memes and messages found on Snapchat
The Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office arrest report reveals that authorities became aware of the alleged threatening messages in late March.
A student flagged school administration on March 21 about a screenshot from social media about a possible school shooting at Holley-Navarre Middle School that was supposed to take place that week, the report said, and several students in the area were subsequently interviewed by deputies.
Teenagers who spoke with deputies showed screenshots of memes Jones’ son allegedly shared on Snapchat and said he also threatened to shoot up his former middle school the week before spring break but later changed his mind.
Deputies interviewed a student who said he remembered seeing Jones’ son had posted in February about a school shooting and saw it on his Snap story. Jones’s son also allegedly told that student “he was going to bring an axe to school but his parents took it from him,” the arrest report said.
Another student interviewed by the sheriff’s office said she spoke with Jones’ son on Discord in February and he told her he wanted to end his own life and shoot…
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