The Georgia man accused of targeting Palm Beach County schools and other locations in fake bomb threats will come to Florida to face a federal judge.
The FBI and officers from the Palm Beach County School District Police arrested Preston McWaters near Athens, Georgia yesterday.
The FBI says he made nine threats to locations in Palm Beach County since December.
A criminal complaint filed in federal court by investigators shines some light on McWaters' possible motivation and the specifics of the threats.
The complaint states McWaters is accused of stalking a former co-worker in Georgia in March 2015.
The co-worker, Devon Kenney, told local authorities McWaters called and texted her about 100 times; even showed up at her home unannounced.
Kenney got a restraining order against McWaters, records show.
Investigators say Kenney moved to Jupiter to live with her boyfriend, Eric Mead in April 2015.
Starting December 11, 2015, Twitter and email accounts linked to Mead started sending threats to schools, Palm Beach International Airport and a business.
FBI investigators believe McWaters made the fake accounts using Mead's information and sent out the threats to get Mead in trouble.
The accounts under Mead's name even sent death threats to Kenney.
Investigators were able to track the accounts back to McWaters' address and arrested him yesterday.
"The past few months have been very frightening and difficult time for us," Mead said in a statement.
One of the bomb threats from January came to the business where Mead works, forcing the West Palm Beach office to evacuate.
"We can only hope that once justice is served, Mr. McWaters is punished to the fullest extent of the law for the agony and fear that he has caused us and the disruption of life that his evil acts have caused to others," Mead's statement continues.
Parents expressed the same sentiment. The FBI says McWaters made fake threats to John I. Leonard High School in Greenacres, Jupiter High School and another elementary school in Palm Beach County, presumed to be Beacon Cove in Jupiter.
"There's no excuse for doing it at all. It's insane," says Lisa FIshman, a parent at Jupiter HS. "You disrupt an entire day for these kids and the kids were scared."
Parents didn't buy McWaters' reasoning laid out by the FBI.
"In society these days, you never know what to expect. Especially with these kids nowadays, they fall in love so quick, they don't know what to do with themselves," explains Heather Day, whose son attends John I. Leonard HS.
McWaters appeared before a judge in Georgia this afternoon. According to a spokesperson from the US Attorney's Office in the Middle District of Georgia, the judge ordered marshals to transport McWaters to Florida, where a judge will decide what, if any, bond McWaters will have as he waits for a trial.
McWaters, 25, is charged with conveying false or misleading information regarding an explosive device and transmission in interstate commerce of a communication of threats to injure the person of another.
McWaters works in the dining hall at the University of Georgia, according to the FBI.
Here is a timeline of the threats FBI investigators believe McWaters was behind:
December 11, 2015: A Twitter account sent a bomb threat to John I. Leonard HS and Palm Beach International Airport.
December 16, 2015: Another tweet targeted John I. Leonard HS.
December 30, 2015: PBIA received an email saying bombs will explode in the airport on New Year's Eve.
January 27, 2016: Kimley Horn and Associates received an email explaining bombs in the building will explode, unless a ransom is paid.
February 2, 2016: the Jupiter HS principal received an email saying bombs were in the school and if he called police, his family would be killed.
February 7, 2016: The principal at John I. Leonard HS received an email claiming someone will detonate bombs at the school, unless a ransom is paid.
February 17, 2016: Jupiter HS received another threat, this time asking for a ransom.
March 4, 2016: an unspecified PBC elementary school, believed to be Beacon Cove, received an email stating chemical weapons were placed in the school.
Here is the full statement from Mead:
"We would like to convey our heartfelt gratitude to all the people and agencies that were involved in the investigation and apprehension of Mr. McWaters. The horrors of identity theft can only be fully appreciated when you’re the one being impersonated. The past few months have been very frightening and difficult time for us. We can only hope that once justice is served, Mr. McWaters is punished to the fullest extent of the law for the agony and fear that he has caused us and the disruption of life that his evil acts have caused to others.
As we begin to rebuild from this harrowing experience, we ask that we be given the privacy that we were denied in order to properly heal."
