Two 16-year-old Riverside-Brookfield High School students have been suspended for appearing on a Facebook video with a handgun and a BB gun making what police termed “gang-motivated statements,” Interim Superintendent David Bonnette said last week.
One of the students lives in Lyons while the other reportedly lives in North Riverside.
Riverside police went to RB on Feb. 1 after school officials learned of the Facebook video. The police questioned the two students who appeared in the video, but the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office declined to press any charges because no explicit threats were made. No guns were found at the school and no arrests were made.
Two 11th-grade boys have been suspended while the school continues its investigation, Bonnette said. The two students appeared on the Facebook video with another unidentified male, Riverside police said.
School officials learned of the video from a tip from an RB parent and contacted the Riverside police department, Bonnette said.
The students were questioned at RB by Riverside police. One student told police that the video was made at a home in Maywood, said Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel.
“They said it was a prank,” Weitzel said. “It didn’t look like that to us. They’re on the video throwing gang signs.”
-Bob Skolnik
