Sheriff Jayson Richardson

DeSoto Parish Sheriff’s Office

After further investigation we are now able to share more information on the alleged threats to various public schools in our area and abroad. A juvenile made our office aware of a live video that was shared to TikTok in which many of the details surrounding the TikTok user and what exactly was said remained unclear or unknown. As a result, our office alerted DeSoto Parish Schools, increased security at the schools, and alerted parents to what was going on via the Sheriff App and Facebook.

An investigator with the DeSoto Sheriff’s Office was able to make direct contact with a representative with TikTok and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) , and further investigation has revealed that there have been multiple reports of the same threats making their rounds recently in Texas and other areas. These threats are coming from TikTok account(s) alleging to be targeting schools in the United States to stoke fear and panic among the public. While this investigation will continue and security at our schools will remain a priority, at this time we can confidently say that these specific threats appear to be coming from the same source, which is not believed to local.

We are asking all students and other TikTok users:

If you have been a witness to any of these threats, have screenshots, or screen recordings, call our office at (318) 872-3956 and ask to speak with an investigator. If you should see any such threats on ANY platform in the future, please be sure to screenshot or screen record anything that would assist the FBI, TikTok, and our agency in locating and holding accountable the holders of the account(s). This includes account usernames, time it was shared, or any other defining characteristics that may assist in this ongoing investigation.