Cloverdale youth in custody after threatening shoe expo

CLOVERDALE — Accused of threatening gun violence at September tennis shoe expo, a 14-year-old Cloverdale student is now in police custody.

The boy reportedly used another student’s name and a fake Instagram account to make the threats.

The issue first came to the attention of Cloverdale Town Marshal Steve Hibler at 7 a.m. Wednesday.

Cloverdale High School Assistant Principal Brent Sailor called Hibler after receiving an email from the mother of one of the people organizing the Sept. 23 convention.

The threats were made via an Instagram account registered to the name of a Cloverdale Middle School student, therefore the woman reached out to someone in the Cloverdale administration.

Upon investigation, the Cloverdale Police Department discovered that the account was, in fact, fake and had actually been set up by another Cloverdale Middle School student to make the other one “look bad.”

The youth reportedly used the other student’s pictures and identifiers to make the account seem authentic.

Hibler said he discovered that the social media account had been set up during last school year, with a number of messages sent to other students.

The account was then reportedly dormant for several months before it resume activity about a month ago.

In recent days, the student began making threats to the shoe expo, directing them at both event organizers and vendors scheduled to appear there.

“The threat was very specific about coming up (to the convention) and doing a shooting,” Hibler said.

Vendors had even begun calling organizers with second thoughts about attending.

Police made pretty quick work of the case Wednesday morning.

“By 10 a.m., I knew who the suspect was,” Hibler said. “By 11, he had admitted to what he did.”

Hibler is now working on the case with Deputy Prosecutor Jim Hanner and Juvenile Probation Officer Samantha Richardson.

The youth was briefly held at the Putnam County Jail before being transferred to a juvenile facility in Vincennes.