Man arrested after Instagram graduation mass shooting threat against PVUSD school
By Felix Cortez
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WATSONVILLE, California (KSBW) — A Watsonville man has been arrested, accused of making an online post threatening violence at next week’s graduation ceremonies.
“The post mentioned something along the lines that a mass shooting was going to happen during the school graduations,” said Erika Vasquez, spokeswoman for Watsonville police, which investigated the online threat.
Arrested was Moises Resendiz, 21, who allegedly directed the threat at the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, which is set to hold more than 30 promotions and graduations beginning next week. No specific ceremony was mentioned in the alleged threat, which was posted on the district’s website on May 9.
“We worked with our team within the school district to make certain that we were looking at all security measures at all our events, not just our graduations and our promotions. Taking a threat seriously is something that’s really important and something that we need to do as a school district,” said Alejandro Chavez, spokesman for Pajaro Valley Unified School District.
An alert resident saw the threatening post and immediately notified Watsonville police, who then obtained a search warrant for the Instagram post and Resendiz’s home on the 700 block of Rodriguez Street.
Police said Resendiz admitted posting the social media threat to provoke outrage in the community.
Investigators said no guns were found during the search and no firearms are registered to Resendiz.
“We just want to reassure our community that there is no active threat, and the safety of the students is always our number one priority,” Vasquez said.
“I think it’s going to be a beautiful time. I think the weather’s going to cooperate, and we’re going to have some great graduations and great promotions this upcoming week,” Chavez added.
Resendiz was booked into the Santa Cruz County Jail on suspicion of making criminal threats.
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