Girl’s arrest tied to Snapchat post about shooter at Pahrump school

An 11-year-old girl was arrested in connection with a social media post that said a school shooter would be at Rosemary Clarke Middle School in Pahrump, according to the Nye County Sheriff’s Office.

The girl was arrested on suspicion of obstructing a peace officer and conveying false information about terroristic threats Thursday after an investigation into a Snapchat post about a shooter coming to the middle school, according to a release from the sheriff’s office.

The girl was turned over to county juvenile probation officials and then placed on house arrest, the sheriff’s office.

The sheriff’s office was notified about the post Wednesday night and immediately began investigating that night into Thursday morning, Sgt. Adam Tippetts said in a Facebook video.

“Although the sheriff’s office had no indication that the threat was credible, Sheriff (Sharon)Wehrly took the precaution of ensuring that uniformed deputies were at each and every school throughout Nye County,” he said.

Wehrly, on the Facebook video, said the girl initially told deputies that she had reposted someone else’s post, but later admitted she had created it and had lied because she was scared.

Further investigation revealed that the girl’s mother had seen a television news interview with the middle school’s principal about school shooting prevention, the sheriff said.

“Due to a language barrier, the mother had interpreted the video as an indication of an impending threat,” Wehrly said. The mother told her daughter about the video, and the girl then posted about the threat on Snapchat and shared it with friends.

The sheriff said she ensured that deputies were at all schools in Nye County until the threat was proven false.