New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman has been called many things. Gritty. Relentless. Tough. And now you might just be able to add “hero” to the mix.
According to the New York Times, Edelman was in Texas last month to visit former teammate and current Miami Dolphins player Danny Amendola when an Instagram follower of his sent him a direct message.
“Dude, there is a kid in your comment section says he s going to shoot up a school, i think you should alert the authority.”
Edelman told the Times that his mind flashed to the shooting in Parkland, FL and thought “With the emotions of what happened, and I have a kid now, I said, holy Toledo, what is going on?” He alerted Shannen Moen, his assistant based in Boston. She identified the specific comment on one of his Instagram posts, which read, “I’m going to shoot my school up watch the news.”
Moen called 911 and two detectives were soon dispatched to her house. They then returned to their office and made an emergency records request which let them see the commenter’s email and IP address, which they were able to trace to Port Huron, Michigan. They alerted Michigan police who then arrived at the address and found a 14-year-old boy who admitted to posting the threatening comment. In the house, they found two rifles that belonged to his mother.
According to Capt. Joseph Platzer of the Port Huron Police Department, the threat was apparently aimed at the boy’s middle school. He was taken to a juvenile detention center and charged with making a false report of a threat of terrorism. If convicted, that’s a felony that carries a sentence of up to four years.
Moen told the Times, “When I told Julian, he was in shock. We’re very lucky the Boston cops were all over it, very lucky the Michigan cops were all over it.”
As for the person who alerted Edelman to the threat (Instagram user jesseyi3), Moen has tried reaching out so that they can send them a care package but they’ve been unable to contact them. “He’s the real hero,” says Moen.
Between this and the Patriots letting Parkland students borrow their team plane to travel to Washington, D.C. for the March for Our Lives event, it’s getting harder and harder to root against these guys.
