'Last chance to run': Mass-shooter who airdropped warning at NYC school threatened to kill himself

The threat message which was airdropped at the High School for Environmental Studies triggered a police investigation

UPDATED DEC 24, 2022

The midtown high school students were barred from leaving after the threat message was airdropped (High School for Environmental Studies/Facebook, @markk.s3/Instagram)

MANHATTAN, NEW YORK: A Midtown high school's students were stopped from leaving the school building after a serious and disturbing mass-shooting threat message was received on December 23. However, cops eventually considered it to be a non-credible warning, as per the Department of Education.

The warning message was airdropped to the students at the High School for Environmental Studies in Hell’s Kitchen by someone who threatened to go on a destructive rampage killing at the school, said a student's Instagram handle named Markk.s3, sharing the content of the message, reports the New York Post.

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“I’m going to shoot the school HSES at 11:30 a.m. [on] December 23 starting from the 6th floor down to floor 1,” the threat message read. The sender of the airdropped message also mentioned it as a murder-suicide as the message pointed out, “I will then take my own life in the middle of the gymnasium. For anyone seeing this, this is your last chance to run away.”

A student at HSES shared the airdropped threat message in an Instagram story (@markk.s3/Instagram)

The New York Post reported that, following the threat message, around 10.00 am, the high schoolers were on 'hold' as they were barred from leaving the building and nobody was allowed to enter the school at the same time, according to the DOE and parents at the school.

Responding to the worrying situation at the high school, a student's parent told the news outlet that a 'hold' imposed is not like a lockdown when it's about a school, as the high schoolers were not prohibited from moving around within the school building. The parent also said that the cautionary measures were implemented for less than an hour.

The DOE said that, from the ongoing investigation, the NYPD examined the situation and found that the threat was an unfounded warning, following which the police withdrew the 'hold' at the school situated on West 56th Street near 10th Avenue.

According to the New York Post, a 16-year-old boy with a loaded gun was busted in March 2015 at the high school. At the time, cops said that the teenager tucked a .32 caliber revolver into his waistband.