Patriots star Julian Edelman is speaking out for the first time after he stopped a potential school shooting with the help of his assistant and one of his 1.7 million Instagram followers.
In March, Edelman received a comment from an Instagram follower, warning him that someone had commented on one of his photos saying “I’m going to shoot my school up watch the news.” The frightening comment was posted one day after the March For Our Lives demonstration in Washington D.C., which called for an end to gun violence following a spate of school shootings.
“My heart just sunk. My first thought was I need to go and find the comment,” Edelman’s assistant Shannen Meon told Good Morning America in an interview broadcast Friday. “I took screenshots of everything and immediately called 911.”
The police traced the comment to an address in Port Huron, Mich., where they found a 14-year-old boy and two rifles belonging his mother. He was taken to a juvenile-detention center and charged with making a false report of a threat of terrorism, the New York Times reported.
“It’s scary to think that those types of things can happen at a place of learning and a place where kids are going just to grow up,” Edelman, 31, told Good Morning America.
The two-time Super Bowl champion also sent his thanks to the Instagram user who alerted him to the comment. “I just want to say thank you for being the awesome human being you are – keep on going over all the comments. You’re like the comment police, bro!” he added.
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