'This is a serious charge': Man accused of threatening to shoot up Wake County school in Snapchat video
Detectives from multiple law enforcement agencies worked together this weekend to link a 23-year-old Mebane man to a Snapchat video threatening to “shoot up” an unspecified high school in Zebulon.
Connor Morgan Terrell is charged with communicating threats of mass violence on educational property.
“This is a serious charge,” said Wake County Judge Monica Bousman.
On Monday, Terrell made his first court appearance in Wake County. Terrell asked for a court-appointed attorney, but said he plans to hire an attorney of his own with the help of his mother.
A judge set Terrell’s bond to $25,000 secured, which is above the typical, recommended maximum of $15,000 bond for a Class H felony. Terrell is also required not to possess any firearms and he is not allowed on or within 100 yards of school property anywhere in North Carolina.
In court, Terrell asked for a reduced bond saying the does not have a car, has no access to guns and lives more than an hour from Zebulon.
Concerned residents tipped off Zebulon police about Terrell’s alleged threat posted Friday, Sept. 9, on Snapchat. By Saturday, investigators arrested Terrell in Mebane.
“In the video, you can see a dark-colored handgun and someone’s finger on it,” said Wake County Assistant District Attorney Patrick McCrary.
In court Monday, McCrary described the contents of the Snapchat video.
“In the video, a man stated, ‘I am going to shoot up a (expletive) school Monday,” McCrary said. “Zebulon (expletive) high school [in] North Carolina. That (expletive) is going to go down at 3 p.m.,’ and the video cuts off right there.”
East Wake Academy was not specifically named, but it is the only high school within Zebulon town limits. The charter school, which is comprised of five buildings, enrolls 1,200 students in grades K-12.
Two squad cars were seen outside East Wake Academy for much of the school day and officers patrolled the perimeter on foot.
“We take every threat very seriously,” said East Wake Academy Executive Director Tom Miller.
Miller showed WRAL Investigates the special locks used to fortify every classroom in the event of a crisis. The school also locks all of its entryways, requires visitors to show identification and utilizes video surveillance across campus.
“I was very impressed at the lack of information I thought they had, to what they were able to execute in 24 hours,” Miller said of Terrell’s arrest.
Terrell has no prior convictions. However, he was accused in recent years of bringing a knife to Southeast Guiliford High School and damaging property with the knife. While Terrell attended Kittrell Job Corps Center, he also is accused of assaulting a student by spraying cleaning solution in a student’s face.
State data
WRAL Investigates searched through five years of records, showing just 11 adults were charged statewide last fiscal year (July 2021-June 2022) for communicating threats of mass violence to a school. Here’s what the state data showed (Year: Adults charged with communicating threats to school property):
- 2021-2022: 11
- 2020-2021: One
- 2019-2020: 13
- 2018-2019: 35
- 2017-2018: 100
Juveniles charged with a felony for communicating threats are not included in the publicly available statewide data.
In the 2017-2018 fiscal year, there were two major school shootings in Parkland, Florida, and Santa Fe, Texas.
“What goes on in this country, unfortunately too often, the state takes this very seriously,” McCrary said.
