NC teen vowed on social media to kill mourners at church memorial service, sheriff says

An 18-year-old former student at a North Carolina high school threatened on social media to kill mourners at a church memorial service for another student at the school, authorities said.

Lincoln County sheriff’s investigators arrested a suspect after receiving calls from school resource officers at East Lincoln Middle School and East Lincoln High School.

The officers reported rumors spreading around the schools that someone posted threats on social media, according to a Sheriff’s Office news release. Investigators said the person threatened to kill people during the service at a church in Denver, N.C., which is at Lake Norman.

Officers searched several locations for the suspect in Maiden, in neighboring Catawba County, authorities said. They couldn’t find him, but finally talked with him after someone provided officers a phone number for the teen.

The suspect, former East Lincoln High student Amon Douglas Stevens, agreed to meet the officers at a restaurant in Hickory.

Stevens was taken into custody and charged with communicating threats and felony communicating a threat of mass violence at a place of religious worship. He remained in jail on Saturday on $20,000 bail.

Sheriff’s investigators aren’t releasing the name of the student who died last week but said the student attended East Lincoln High School. Investigators also aren’t saying if the suspect knew the student or how the student died.