In an unsettling turn of events, the Shaler Area School District postponed the commencement of its academic year following threats made by a 28-year-old man, identified as Daniel White. According to the Allegheny County Police, White, who has no fixed address but previously resided in Turtle Creek, now faces three misdemeanor counts of making terroristic threats. This information comes from court documents cited by TribLive.
The troubling episode unfolded when White visited Crisis Resolve in Pittsburgh and expressed his intention to harm individuals, including explicit threats targeting Shaler Elementary School; his distressing declaration included "I am a murderer, and I will kill everyone. I will shoot up schools, especially the ones with little white kids at Shaler Elementary," as per the criminal complaint mentioned by TribLive. Despite the gravity of his words, and the subsequent precautionary measures taken by the Shaler Area School District, including rescheduling orientation day and the first day of school, there is no known connection between White and the school district, Superintendent Bryan O’Black and Shaler Police Chief Sean Frank assured families in a letter, and the same was corroborated by WPXI.
An alert for White was broadcast on Monday morning, and an Allegheny County Sheriff's deputy who recognized his name from previous interactions with mental health court found and arrested him at the Allegheny County Courthouse, as TribLive reported. "The deputy made contact with Daniel White a short time later in the courthouse and took him into custody," said Mike Manko, the spokesperson for the sheriff’s office.
To bolster security, Shaler Area School District has invested in the OpenGate weapons detection system, set to be deployed at its high school and middle school during the early weeks of the school year.
