OPELIKA, Ala. (EETV) – Last Tuesday, Opelika High School received a shooting threat and went into lockdown at 10:45 a.m. The threat was later cleared, and a 14-year-old Montgomery resident was arrested with felony charges.
“Opelika High School received a threat via phone call to the office. The person on the other end of the phone said that they were on their way to Opelika High School to ‘shoot the school up,’” said the Chief of Opelika Police Shane Healey. “They described a situation with a student who was at the school, did not name the student, but basically said they were coming to target that student, and they would be there shortly.”
After the threat was received, police set up a perimeter around the school. Weeks after the lockdown, Opelika High School students still remember their thoughts during the incident. When confronted with the reality of the situation, student Taylore Phillips felt concerned not only for herself but others.
“It wasn’t about me, it was about my friends – I was just hoping that none of them were in the bathroom. I was just hoping that it was a drill, but it wasn’t a drill,” said Taylore Phillips, a student at Opelika High School who read in her English class seconds before the lockdown.
New evidence uncovered in the Opelika Police Department and the FBI’s ongoing investigation reveal that the teen had no plans to carry out the threat. Anyone with information is asked to reach out to the Opelika police.
