Columbiana student confessed threats, police say

Print Story

Email to Friend

Discuss this story

Officers asked educators to try to identify the voice on the tape.

By D.A. WILKINSON

VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU

COLUMBIANA — A young man was hanging around the principal's office at the Columbiana High School this afternoon when an investigator arrived.

"He said, 'Hello,' " Detective John Jay of the Columbiana Police Department recalled,

In looking back, Jay said, the student "might have been fishing for information."

Jay was at the school to play a tape of two conversations for school officials in the hope they would recognize the voice.

They did, and the suspect confessed.

A man made calls twice on Monday evening that were answered by Salem police and said "something bad" was going to happen at one of five area school districts: Columbiana, Salem, Lisbon, Leetonia or Crestview.

Salem police said the caller claimed he had been threatened with harm by another man to make the calls.

When the dispatchers in Salem pressed for more information from the caller, the calls were cut off.

The youth eventually confessed Thursday after school officials and Jay said the voice on the tape was the student's.

Jay said the young man has been taken to Forum Health Northside Hospital in Youngstown for a mandatory 72-hour psychiatric evaluation. The detective said he has the authority to order such an examination. No charges have been filed.

The student's parents had been to the school after the questioning.

Jay said the student "had some problems." He did not elaborate. He added that he did not think the calls were a cry for help.

There were indications that the calls were not meant to be taken seriously, Jay said. In the calls, the event was to happen in so many hours and minutes. Police did the math to determine the event was supposed to happen at 1:39 a.m. today.

However, schools took precautions to notify parents.

Columbiana Police Chief John Krawchyk notified the media Thursday afternoon of the development because of parental concern.

Jay said he and other officers were brainstorming about the case and listening to the tape. After coming up with the names of a couple of students who might have made the call, Jay traveled to a school in Lisbon, and the Columbiana County Joint Vocational School. However, those students were eliminated as suspects.

The detective then went to the Columbiana High School to ask educators if they recognized the voice.

wilkinson@vindy.com

Thursday, September 21, 2006