A 14-year-old boy was arrested Tuesday for threats made over the Internet to "go on a killing spree" and then commit suicide at his former middle school, authorities said.
The teenager was taken into custody without incident at his home after posting the threats in the comments section of a YouTube music video for the hit song "Pumped Up Kicks," according to Sergeant Jessie Spurgin, a Maricopa County Sheriff's Office spokesman.
"He gave out a specific place and time for when it would happen," Spurgin said. "That made it a little more credible in our eyes."
Spurgin said a sawed-off shotgun was later found during a search of the boy's north Phoenix home, where he lives with his grandfather. He said investigators were trying to determine if there was a connection between the threats and the weapon.
Spurgin said the boy had admitted posting the threats on the site.
Sheriff's deputies were tipped off to the ex-Wigwam Creek Middle School student by an out-of-state YouTube viewer who went to the site for "Pumped Up Kicks," by Foster the People.
The lyrics of the catchy top-40 single talk of a "cowboy kid" who found "a six shooter gun."
'Faster than my bullet'
The chorus of the song is: "All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you'd better run, better run, outrun my gun. All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet."
The teenager was arrested on suspicion of interfering with a school and threatening and intimidating, Spurgin said.
Ann Donahue, community liaison for the Litchfield Elementary School District, said the boy was not a "disciplinary problem" while attending the school as a sixth-grader from October 2010 to March 2011.
"He just moved away," Donahue said. "There was no trouble."
She said school went on as scheduled on Tuesday, with only a "small amount of absences" caused by news of the threat.
Spurgin said deputies were stationed at the school to provide additional security.
