Gatineau police warning teens that gun threats on social media will be investigated

Gatineau police are warning that threatening images and messages posted to social media, even as jokes, could result in criminal charges.

This comes after a Gatineau teenager was arrested and charged for an alleged threat toward a local school.

The investigation began when the FBI in the U.S. found a photo on Snapchat purporting to show a teen with what appeared to be a handgun, suggesting he would be bringing the gun to school the next day. The FBI contacted Interpol, which then reached out the MRC-des-Collines-de-l’Outaouais police.

The snap was traced to a home in l’Ange-Gardien. Police enlisted the Sûreté du Québec’s tactical intervention group because of the possibility of a gun.

The home was searched on Dec. 5, but police were told the teen in the picture was a friend who was staying over for the weekend, and used the family’s Wi-Fi to post to Snapchat.

The teen was later arrested in Gatineau. Police say charges of uttering threats and carrying a weapon for a dangerous purpose will be submitted to the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions in order to be processed by the Youth Division. He’s been released on a promise to appear in court, and must abide by release conditions, which were not specified.

Police also say his school is following up with him as well.

Gatineau police did not identify the youth in a news release Tuesday.

The incident is prompting police to warn teenagers that they can be charged with uttering threats even if they had no intention of following through or were only joking.

“People who have made such comments, whether in the virtual or real world, expose themselves to criminal charges as well as all the subsequent consequences that may result,” police said in a release, originally written in French.

“The proliferation of firearms, the growing popularity of airguns almost identical to lethal weapons and the feeling of impunity that social networks provide is a disturbing cocktail. We all have a role to play in limiting the trivialization of violence, which can sometimes be expressed by sharing photos with weapons or comments suggesting a threat," said Michaël Côté, inspector at the Criminal Investigations Division of Gatineau police.

Police are also advising parents to make sure their children know the proper rules around the use, storage, and safe transportation of airsoft guns and other imitation guns.

“Before offering a compressed air gun or an imitation gun as a gift to a child or teenager, you must ensure that the latter is mature enough to use it properly. Although these weapons do not necessarily have the lethal force of a firearm, some of them can cause serious injury,” police said.

The final warning is that since many airsoft guns often resemble real firearms, police are trained to treat them as lethal weapons, which can have very serious consequences.