ELGIN, Texas - An Elgin High School student has been arrested for falsely reporting seeing another student with a handgun on campus.
What we know:
17-year-old Manuel Hernandez of Elgin has been charged with violating Texas Penal Code 42.06, which covers false alarm or report, a state-jail felony, and booked into the Travis County Jail.
The Elgin Police Department says that on Jan. 8 at around 8:15 a.m., officers were sent to Elgin High School about a report of a student showing a handgun in the parking lot.
Officers spoke with the student who reported the handgun, later identified as Hernandez, who told them another student showed it to him and that they had had previous conflicts, says EPD. He also provided a name and physical description.
Officers searched the area where the incident reportedly happened but didn't find the other student. A wider search of the campus, surrounding property and nearby subdivisions led officers to a high school-aged male matching the suspect's description walking toward campus.
Officers detained the male before he reached the campus, but quickly determined that he was not the suspect and released him. The investigation later uncovered evidence suggesting the initial incident didn't happen.
Hernandez told police in another interview that he had made it all up to gain attention, Elgin police say.
Dig deeper:
Elgin police say that while this was all happening, there were also false reports circulating on social media about ICE agents conducting an operation near the high school.
Police determined that the reports were related to the officers' detention of the other student based on the timing and description of the posts. No federal agents were involved.
The Source: Information in this report comes from the Elgin Police Department