Weslaco man arrested for threatening to “shoot up” McAllen charter school

Police arrested an 18-year-old Weslaco man last week who allegedly threatened to “shoot up” Triumph Public High School in McAllen because he was upset over an altercation his girlfriend, a student at the school, had been involved in.

 

 

McAllen police arrested Jacob Lee Vela last Wednesday and charged him with terroristic threat, a third degree felony, and threatening to use a firearm in a public school, a Class A misdemeanor.

 

Vela was released from the Hidalgo County Jail Tuesday on bonds totalling $30,000.

 

According to an offense report, at 11:29 A.M. on Feb. 19 an employee at Triumph Public High School called police and said someone was making threats on the phone.

 

When police arrived, they found the man still on the phone, though he declined to identify himself.

 

“The male advised he never made threats to shoot up the school and only wanted the school to resolve the issues with the students who wanted to fight his girlfriend…” the report says. “The male stated he was only going to pull up to the school.”

 

A group of employees who had listened to the call before police arrived told a different story.

 

At least three employees said they’d heard the man on the phone screaming and yelling obscenities.

 

“I’m driving the f— over there and shooting up the school,” one of the employees recalled the man saying.

 

 

Another recalled a similar threat, and all three felt threatened, the report says.

 

Patricia Jasso, the school’s principal, said the employees called her to the phone after becoming concerned over the man.

 

When she told the caller the school was contacting law enforcement, the report says, the man told Jasso he hadn’t threatened a shooting but he did intend to go to the campus and “cause problems” if something wasn’t done so that his girlfriend didn’t get in trouble over her altercation earlier that day.

 

The report says caller ID listed the man’s name as Jesus Vela rather than Jacob Vela.

 

Officers made contact with the student the man had referred to as his girlfriend, who told them she’d been upset after an altercation with another student and had called her boyfriend, Jacob Vela.

 

Police looked up Jacob Vela’s address in Weslaco and managed to get him on the phone.

 

The report says he identified himself as the man who had called the school earlier.

 

Weslaco police responded to Vela’s address and made contact with him before McAllen police arrived to arrest him.

 

Frances Berrones-Johnson, the superintendent of Triumph High Schools, declined to say whether the campus went into some sort of lockdown after the incident or whether the school system notified parents about the threats.

 

Triumph did, she said, work with law enforcement, heighten security and clearly communicate with the school community “as appropriate.”

 

“When we became aware of the reported threat, we took immediate steps in coordination with local law enforcement to ensure the security of our campus,” Frances Berrones-Johnson wrote in an email. “While I cannot comment on specific details regarding the individual involved due to privacy and legal considerations, I can assure you that we followed our established safety protocols.”