A Queens student who pledged to shoot up a high school on social media was busted with a loaded semiautomatic handgun Thursday after Instagram moderators flagged his disturbing post, officials and sources said.
The 16-year-old student at Benjamin Cardozo High School was nabbed by school safety officers after the FBI traced the phone number associated with the account tabbed by Instagram.
The male student allegedly shared a picture of a mannequin sketch shortly after 10 a.m. captioned “TS GMT boutta shoot the school up.”
Authorities believe that he was on school grounds when he made the post.
The abbreviated “TS GMT” commonly translates to “this s–t gets me tight’ in online vernacular, officials said.
He was found on school grounds with a loaded semiautomatic handgun just two hours after sharing the post, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
The 10th grader also had three cellphones in his backpack, including one sealed in a school-provided pouch, Tisch said.
The student has no prior criminal history, Tisch said.
“I’ll be honest – as a mother of two young school aged boys, I am shaken. But as your police commissioner, I am resolute in ensuring that the NYPD does everything in our power to keep our children safe,” Tisch said.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams celebrated law enforcement’s speedy work as “the perfect example of the system working properly.”
“We potentially saved the lives of a lot of students and staff today, and I don’t want to imagine a world where we would be making a different announcement right now,” Adams said.
FBI officials also praised the “successful outcome.”
“This swift response demonstrates the importance of close partnerships and the critical need for information-sharing to ensure our city and students are protected against unnecessary acts of violence,” the bureau said in a statement to The Post.
Still, Adams highlighted that the near-disaster is just another example of how “our children are being radicalized” and “taken from us” by nefarious ideals.
“If you are a parent and if you’re not concerned about what we’re seeing unfold in our city, we have to question ourselves. This is a 16-year-old with a semiautomatic weapon, and indicating he’s going to take the life of the students. That is coming from somewhere,” Adams warned.
“We have to recommit ourselves to saving these children. We’re seeing it every day. Younger and younger people are participating in these acts. This is a real wake-up call for our city, for our country.”
