A Humble teenage is facing a felony charge after police say he created a terroristic threat on Snapchat shortly before taking off along with his father on a flight to Guatemala.
According to court documents, 17-year-old Hector
Fonseca was at Bush intercontinental airport on August. 3 once he
snapped a picture of
his shoes and shorts inside a
terminal, alongside the
words “blown this sh*t up.” The snap additionally included a smiley face and bomb emoji.
A second snap was posted before Fonseca boarded the United flight with his father, this time showing the teenager holding his
passport alongside the
message “time to blow up the
plane,” court documents state.
On Aug. 4, an e-tip to the FBI National
Threat Operations Center was made by
a Snapchat representative, who reported the alleged messages, however Fonseca had already left
the country.
FBI and customs agents investigating the messages
followed a digital trail from
Fonseca’s Snapchat account to the
home of a neighbor, who was able to identify the teenager and where he lived.
“Immediately upon questioning. He declared that he knew why law enforcement was talking to him and that it was relating to the Snap Chat post created by Hector Fonseca,”
court documents state.
Screenshots of the snaps were sent to Houston
police, who created plans to arrest Fonseca
upon returning home.
Fonseca faces up to 10 years in jail,
if he is proved guilty.
If police had been notified of the threat before
the plane departed, it would have
forced Bush intercontinental airport to ground all inbound and outbound planes, airport operations would have been close up, and all non-emergency
personnel would have been evacuated.
Late Tuesday, the Harris County District Attorney’s office discharged this statement to ABC13: “What everybody needs to know is
that we take threats
of mass violence seriously – particularly when they involve airports, schools and other public, weapon-free places.
Houston Police filed charges with prosecutors after receiving data from FBI and Customs and Border
Protection agents, who investigated
a tip relating to a
planned act of violence directed toward Bush intercontinental airport.”
– Dane Schiller.