By Bonita Wilborn
According to our news partner, AL.com, Anthony Brett Kessler, a 19-year-old from Lehigh Acres, Florida, is being held in the Lee County jail on a warrant charging him with threatening to coordinate a shooting at Fort Payne High School on March 5, saying the shooting would happen the next day. The Lee County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI announced the arrest. In a press release, Eric Sporre, FBI Special Agent in Charge said, “We take every threat seriously. The FBI Tampa Field Office continues to work with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners in assessing any and all threats. As always, we will work with our law enforcement partners to gather, share and act upon threat information as it comes to our attention.”
More than a dozen officers were at the school on the day in question after a concerned citizen in Rochester, New York contacted the FBI about a possible threat they saw in a chat room. Kessler is accused of making the threat towards Fort Payne High School, which panicked students and parents on March 5. The threat caused Fort Payne City Schools to make attendance optional for the day the threat stated as when the incident was to take place.
Kessler was captured at a restaurant on Palm Beach Boulevard in Fort Myers, Florida, as an out-of-state fugitive from justice. In a Press release, Fort Payne Police Chief Randy Bynum stated, “This arrest would not have been possible without the Fort Payne Police Department Detectives, Gadsden FBI Special Agent Frank Langdon and Supervisory Resident Agent in Charge of the FBI Gadsden office Stan Ruffin. The cooperation that Gadsden FBI gave us in bringing Mr. Kessler to justice cannot be measured. This is an example of cooperation between agencies going above and beyond for the safety of Fort Payne school students.”
Police officials say the next step is to have Kessler extradited to Alabama.
“We have been, and continue to be, committed to ensuring a safe environment for our children and for our residents,” said Under sheriff Carmine Marceno. “In addition to our own security operations, we are committed to work closely with any and all federal and state agencies in need of our assistance.”
Lehigh Acres, Florida is more than 700 miles from Fort Payne, Alabama. Police haven’t released information about a motive for the threat, but sources say that the teen once attended Fort Payne High School and Investigators believe he may have relatives that live in the Fort Payne area.