MIAMI (WSVN) - One person has been taken into custody after police responded to what they believe was a hoax bomb threat at Miami Northwestern Senior High School.
Miami-Dade Police officers responded to the school, located in the area of Northwest 10th Avenue and 71st Street, at approximately 11 a.m., Thursday.
A Tactical Response Team also responded with high-powered rifles and searched the campus as a precaution.
According to Miami-Dade County Public Schools officials, one person was found inside the building after it was evacuated and has been taken in for questioning.
The threat allowed the new Miami-Dade School Safety Command Center to get its first test in real-time. The threat happened while Miami-Dade Schools Police were unveiling new technology to give law enforcement more eyes and ears throughout the district.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho was at the center when the reported threat came in.
“We’re actually notified here of an active situation in one of our schools,” he said. “Someone called the school with a threat. Probably a hoax, but we do not take anything lightly.”
The center features ShotSpotter technology and GPS trackers on school buses.
7SkyForce HD flew over the scene where officers from multiple agencies like City of Miami Police and Miami-Dade Schools Police could be seen in plain clothes and uniform near the front gate of the school.
School in Miami-Dade County starts on Monday, but several teachers and the football team that were on the campus were evacuated.
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Officials believe the threat was not credible.
Carvalho said the center’s technology and active shooter drills are keeping police alert and aware.
“We took advantage of this situation to continue to perfect our skills,” Carvalho said, “so police force was deployed. The school was evacuated. There was one individual who happened to have been a newly hired entity in the school, but at this point the school is calm, and it appears that this was a hoax.”
About an hour after the hoax at the high school, Pembroke Pines Charter High School was evacuated because of a separate scare.
Although both threats turned out to be fake, school safety remains a priority.
Those safety concerns include when a Hollywood teenager pulled out a handgun and pointed it at students.
“You see a person pull out a gun from underneath the desk and point it to the backs of unsuspecting students, and that’s disturbing for anyone,” Hollywood Police spokesperson Miranda Grossman said.
Wilmer Guerrero Martinez made a court appearance and is accused of posting the video to social media. Martinez also asked “whether I should carry my pistol w me like last year” in a different post.
The 16-year-old smiled at 7News cameras while his parents looked on.
“Last year in the 2018-2019 school year, the student was expelled from McArthur High School for bringing ammunition into the school,” Grossman said.
Detectives believe Martinez filmed the video in 2018 and posted it Tuesday to Snapchat and Instagram.
Police continue to investigate all of the threats against the schools.
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