Utah Teen Arrested After Divulging Hit List

0 Comments

A 14-year-old has been arrested after one of his teachers noticed what he considered strange behavior by the Utah teen.

Photo: Brendan DeBrincat

The young man, who claims he’s been bullied, had a “hit list” with several names on it in his possession at school. He allegedly planned to stab the people on his list, but police noted that he didn’t have a knife on him when he was arrested.

The Utah teen is being investigated for six counts of harassment and six counts of making threats against life or property—misdemeanors. After being booked into juvenile detention, he was released into the custody of his parents.

Harassment can be charged in Utah if a person, intending to frighten or harass someone else, communicates a written or recorded threat to commit any violent felony. Harassment is a class B misdemeanor.

A person is only justified in threatening force against another person if he reasonably believes that threat is necessary to defend himself or someone else against another’s use of imminent force. In other words, if Bill threatens to assault Joe and his friend Mike with a baseball bat, Joe is entitled to threaten to punch Bill if he attempts to use the bat.

Interestingly, the city police chief stated that this Utah teen has been bullied but feels he’s been a bully as well. It looks like there needs to be some investigation into what’s going on with some of the students at that school.

Talk to a Utah juvenile defense attorney if your child has been arrested or is being investigated for any offense. It’s important that the entire story be told and not just from the point of view of the alleged victims.