Southlake teen threatened to bring gun to Carroll High, police say

An 18-year-old graduate of Carroll Senior High School was released from jail Wednesday, a day after he was arrested on suspicion of tweeting threats to commit a school shooting, police said.

Hudson Bales tweeted “personal threats” to a female student and an “unspecified school” Tuesday before he unsuccessfully “attempted to locate a firearm,” Southlake police said.

School officials confirmed that the school was Carroll Senior High.

“He said he was going to bring a gun to school. He did make a threat against the school and admitted to detectives that he looked to find a gun,” said Kim Leach, a Southlake police spokeswoman.

Leach said Bales wasn’t able to get to his parents’ firearm, which was locked away.

Southlake police arrested Bales shortly after the threats were reported by a female student, according to a statement from Southlake police. The teenager immediately told a school resource officer, and police located Bales at his home 12 minutes after the threats were reported, police said.

The female student “did exactly what she should have done,” police said.

None of the district’s schools were shut down, but Carroll Senior High was put on a temporary “soft lockdown,” said Julie Thannum, a district spokeswoman.

A soft lockdown is where the school continues operating but no one is allowed to enter or leave, she said. Most of the students in the 11th- and 12th-grade school were already gone for the day, she said.

Bales was booked into the Keller jail Tuesday facing charges of making a terroristic threat and harassment, police said. He was released at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. Bail was set at $1,000 for the harassment charge and $5,000 for the terroristic threat charge, police said.

After the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Connecticut, Carroll schools started a safety initiative that includes armed police officers on its 11 campuses.

This story was originally published September 2, 2014 at 10:58 PM with the headline "Southlake teen threatened to bring gun to Carroll High, police say."