Instagram Message To Julian Edelman Helps Police Thwart Potential School Shooting In Michigan

Thanks to help from Julian Edelman, police in a small Michigan town have thwarted the potential threat of a school shooting.

As reported by the New York Times on Wednesday, Edelman received a tip in his Instagram direct messages about a comment that threatened to attack a middle school near Port Huron, Michigan. The message read: "Dude, there is a kid in your comment section says he [is] going to shoot up a school, I think you should alert the authority."

And sure enough, Edelman's assistant Shannen Moen went through the comments and found this one: "I’m going to shoot my school up watch the news."

Edelman credited his follower's original message for sparking the action that led the police to thwart a potential tragedy.

"Thankfully, this kid said something," said Edelman. "We’re going to send him something, a care package, just for his work. He’s the real hero."

Authorities traced the threatening comment back to a 14-year-old boy in Port Huron, who admitted to posting the threat on Instagram. Police also found two rifles that reportedly belonged to his mother.

Police charged the boy with making a false report of a threat of terrorism, which could result in up to four years in jail. He's in a juvenile-detention center and has already had one court hearing, according to the N.Y. Times.

Edelman said he was in Texas visiting his now-former teammate, Danny Amendola, when he got the original message. Kudos to "jesseyi3" for alerting him to the original threat, and to Edelman and his assistant for being vigilant.