TUMWATER, Wash. — Two high school football games in Thurston County were canceled Friday after two separate threats. A teenager is in custody and law enforcement are still looking for a second suspect.
“I just think it’s sad,” Sandy Nelson, who lives in Tumwater, said. “We are a safe community. I was just totally shocked by it and really sorry.”
Friday afternoon, the Tumwater Police Department announced it would have an increased presence at the Pioneer Bowl, the rivalry game between Tumwater and Black Hills High Schools, due to threats from a former Tumwater Middle School student who no longer lived in the area. Eventually, the game was called off completely.
Police announced an arrest Saturday; a King County 14-year-old is in custody, accused of threats to bomb or injure property.
“I think the violence, especially lately, is ridiculous, because it’s a football game,” Salecia Sun, who lives in Tumwater, said. “We are just trying to come together as a community, and people like to ruin things.”
Just down the interstate, a similar situation played out in Rochester ahead of the matchup between Rochester and Centralia High Schools. In a joint post to Facebook, both school districts wrote the game was canceled after a credible threat was reported.
The post praised a student for bringing the threat to the attention of Centralia school administrators and wrote, in part, “No athletic event is more important than the well-being of our students and communities.”
“I think it’s a parent thing, too,” Sun said. “You’ve got to raise your kids correctly, got to show them the ins and outs of how the world is.”
Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders addressed the situation in a Facebook post of his own, writing that the kid who made the threats claimed to be affiliated with a gang and was threatening a specific student.
He said the suspect is a runaway who has not yet been located.
“I don’t think we just slap handcuffs on them and throw them in jail,” Nelson said. “I do think it’s a deeper level of approach, treatment, and concern that needs to happen.”
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