Teenager Faces Terrorism Hoax Charge After Allegedly Saying She Would ‘Shoot Up’ High School With Ak-47

Stock photo of police tape. Carl Ballou/Shutterstock

A teenager is facing terrorism hoax charges after deputies accused her of telling a coworker she was going to “shoot 400 people for fun” at the Oklahoma high school where had she dropped out as a freshman.

Alexis Wilson, 18, has pleaded not guilty, saying that her words were taken the wrong way by her co-worker as she showed them pictures of herself shooting a newly-acquired AK-47.

“We’d seen a video of her shooting guns,” Pittsburg County Sheriff Morris said, reported McAlester News-Capital. “She showed video to her friends and told them she had recently purchased a gun and told her friends she was going to shoot up the school.”

Pittsburg County deputies seized a black AK-47 with six magazines, according to the news outlet, along with a 12-gauge shotgun found in her bedroom.

Alexis Wilson Pittsburg Sheriff's Office

Some earlier reports suggest she was arrested on terrorism threat charges, but according to local reports, she was charged on Sept. 16 with terrorism hoax.

Wilson is a former McAlester High School student who dropped out in the ninth grade.

A sheriff’s office incident report cited by McAlester News-Capital states that Wilson told a coworker she would “shoot 400 people for fun and that there were so many people at her old school that she would like to do it.”

Wilson told officers, according to the same report, that her coworker had taken what she'd said the wrong way, saying she “would never shoot up a school”

The report states Wilson said she used to be suicidal and “borderline homicidal to the people of McAlester school because she was bullied.”

The same report, according to Fox23, said that Wilson’s mother knew she had been saving for and buying the rifle, but since “Alexis has always shot firearms and had hunted,” she thought little of the matter.

According to KTUL, deputies learned there were some previous violent issues with Wilson who had once been suspended for bringing a knife to school.  Another time she had a swastika symbol on her belongings.

In this file image, a customer purchases an AK-47 style rifle for about $1200 at an Illinois store on Dec. 17, 2012. Scott Olson/Getty Images

“She had some problems, but I am not aware of anything would draw attention as a potential for something like this,” said McAlester Public School Superintendent, Randy Hughes.

Wilson had tried to re-enroll in McAlester High School but was denied enrollment, according to KTUL.

Deputies said that she seemed upset about not being allowed back into school—which she denied.

Wilson is being held at Pittsburg County Jail on $250,000 bond.

Terrorism hoax is defined by Oklahoma law (pdf) as “the willful conduct to simulate an act of terrorism as a joke, hoax, prank or trick against a place, population, business, agency or government.”

The law requires that the actions of the perpetrator create a “reasonable belief by any victim” that they will carry out the threat.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment.

“In today’s times, you can’t say stuff like that,” said Morris, reported KTUL, “And anytime something is said, we are going to take it serious and we are going to investigate it to the full extent and make an arrest if possible because we do not want any of our schools getting shot up. Nobody does, so we are going to do anything we can to prevent this.”