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Florida mom upset with rezoning threatens shooting at her children's elementary school, police say

Posted at 12:36 PM, Aug 12, 2019
and last updated 2019-08-12 15:36:43-04

LAKE WORTH BEACH, Fla. — A Palm Beach County mother is accused of threatening to carry out a shooting at an elementary school because her children were being moved there.

According to an arrest report, 28-year-old Miranda Perez was communicating with a friend on Facebook Messenger around 8 a.m. on Sunday.

During a video chat, Perez told her friend "she was going to Facebook friend Zachary Cruz because she likes 'violent things,'" an arrest report stated.

Zachary Cruz is the brother of Nikolas Cruz, the 20-year-old accused of carrying out a deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Feb. 14, 2018.

Perez also made comments about Nikolas Cruz during her video chat, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said.

According to the arrest report, shortly after the video chat ended, Perez wrote on Facebook Messenger, "I'm thinking of doing a school shooting at Barton."

Barton referred to Barton Elementary School in Lake Worth Beach, Florida which is the school Perez's children were being moved to.
PBSO said Perez later said in the Facebook Messenger chat, "Yep. It's there [sic] fault," referring to the school.

Detectives said when they interviewed Perez, she admitted to sending the messages and told them "she did think about shooting the school, but claimed she would never actually do it."

Perez was arrested and booked into the Palm Beach County jail on a charge of sending a written threat to commit bodily injury. She's being held on $5,000 bond.

This story was originally published by WPTV in West Palm Beach, Florida.