‘We take these threats very seriously’: Horry County police chief speaks on threats targeting Carolina Forest High School

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) - In speaking with members of the media Wednesday, Horry County Police Chief Joesph Hill said the investigation is still early into recent threats targeting Carolina Forest High School.

“This is going to take some time to work through the judicial system, but what I would like to tell our community is that we take these threats very seriously. We work hand-in-hand with the school systems. That collaboration and partnership has proven very beneficial,” said Hill.

CFHS was the target of six threats since April 24, most of which were bomb threats that authorities said later out to be hoaxes.

The HCPD announced that a 19-year-old from Lousiana was arrested in connection to the first threats made to the school on April 24. Two CFHS students, who are juveniles, have also since been charged in connection with separate threats made later in the week. The HCPD also noted that at least one threat to the school tracked back to a server in India.

Hill explained the challenges of an investigation like this mainly involving the internet.

“There’s a certain sense of anonymity when you’re dealing with the internet,” he said. “And the phone calls and the threats because you can do it on servers that bounce across the world. So it’s harder for law enforcement to pin that down in an expeditious manner. But as you saw in this case, we worked through those challenges and came out on top in bringing justice to the community.”

The chief added that “breadcrumbs” left behind helped make the arrests in the Carolina Forest threats, but said school threats being made remotely is a problem across the country. He also said the department used “electronic tracking means” in the investigation, but didn’t go into specifics about that.

Hill also said the suspect from Lousiana, Trenton Brown, likely has “no direct connection to the community.”

“And that’s the scary part,” he added. “Because you don’t have to have a direct connection. You can lodge a threat, and it’s happened before, in some cases they call it ‘swatting.’ Where they can call from a remote location and bring law enforcement to a location. We have a way of processing that, so it’s not what you typically think. When you think of swatting calls you think of a mass collection of law enforcement on a particular residence or location - that’s not the case. We dispatch our officers, we do an assessment of the situation. If we think this is a legitimate threat, then we’ll bring in additional resources. But it’s not this mass accumulation of officers on the scene.”

Hill added the next steps in the investigation include getting those arrested before a judge and let the legal process play out. He also acknowledged false reports about what happened at CFHS being spread on social media because of artificial intelligence.

“The internet is a beautiful thing, provides a lot of information,” said Hill. “But [it] can also be a very dangerous thing if it’s misused. AI also can be misused and that’s why there’s so much discussion about how we manage this new technology and the same discussions are being had in law enforcement circles.”

He also had a simple message for students and those in the community.

“For the students? Go to school. Take this opportunity to learn and be successful with no disruptions. And what I’ll tell the community is to get your information from law enforcement and reputable sources. Don’t rely on information on information you get from the internet. There was a lot of misinformation that was put out there, which was disheartening to the parents and to the faculty and also a distraction for us. We don’t need that. We’re already working hard on this case. So get your information from reputable sources,” said Hill.

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