No charges to be filed in alleged Facebook school threats

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office declined Monday to file charges against a 24-year-old Pomona man who was arrested after allegedly posting threats on Facebook about killing elementary school students.

Kyle Bangayan, 24, of Pomona, was arrested Sunday at his parents' home in the 1200 block of North New Hampshire Avenue, the Los Angeles Police Department said. He was booked on suspicion of making criminal threats and held on $500,000 bail.

But late Monday, prosecutors announced they would not charge Bangayan with any crime because he had not made specific threats targeting individual students or schools.

Bangayan allegedly told an LAPD detective that he made three Facebook posts involving threats to shoot at elementary school kids “as a joke," and that he "got some laughs from his friends from it," according to a filing rejection released Monday.

“He make references to the fact that Americans need to get over the fact that thousands of kids die in third-world countries every day and says Americans need to get over this [Newtown shootings] incident,” the document states. “There is no reference to threatening actions toward any specific victim or school, which is required in the elements of the … statute.” 

The LAPD noted that Bangayan's posts did not specify a particular school but did refer to the deadly shooting in Newtown, Conn., in which a gunman killed 20 children. The posts referred to "kindergarten and elementary school kids," sources familiar with the investigation said.

Los Angeles police officers and FBI agents found weapons — rifles, a shotgun and multiple handguns — as well as ammunition at his parents' home, the LAPD said. It was not immediately known to whom they belonged.

A search of Bangayan's home in Pomona turned up no weapons or other "related evidence," authorities said.

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-- Andrew Blankstein