Charleston, W.Va. — Kanawha County Prosecutor Debra Rusnak says teamwork has paid off with two arrests in school safety investigations.
“As a result of the influx of reports that we received the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office and our law enforcement officers and partners have been working nonstop,” Rusnak said at a Friday afternoon news conference. “Due to the diligent and the hard work and the efforts put forth by the sheriff’s department we have been able to arrest two suspects.”
The two arrests are from two separate incidents, at two different schools and ages.
“Being a middle school student at Sissonville Middle School and a separate incident a high school student at Riverside High School,” Rusnak said. “We told you that we promised we would thoroughly investigate these and that were taking this very seriously.”
Rusnak also stated that they are promptly receiving these reports and that the children remain the number one priority along with the safety of the schools.
Rusnak and Chief Deputy Joey Crawford, both encouraged people that if they see a threat posted online to call the police instead of reposting it.
“We much rather you give us the information first because if you post it on social media, you start putting it out there, it creates more work for us on the front end trying to sift through if it’s accurate information,” Crawford said.
Crawford along with the Sheriff Mike Rutherford and another officer also stated that the sheriff’s office have been on the phone getting information and investigating to find out where the threats came from.
“Us three right here have probably been on the phone every night, for the past three or four nights, ” Crawford said “And I’m talking probably between eight and eleven at night, five in the morning and were getting this information and whatever information we are getting were vetting it.”
At the end, they ensured that they are investigating each and every threat to ensure that children are safe and to encourage again to call the police if you see a threat like this.