SPOKANE, Wash. – Spokane Police said on Tuesday morning the student accused of making threats to Lewis and Clark High School was booked into the Spokane County Jail.
Ryan Lee, 18, has been charged with two counts of felony harassment and one count of communication with a minor for immoral purposes. Jail administrators said Lee was only in jail for about an hour and was released at 10:24 a.m.
Police had said he was receiving medical and once he was finished getting that care, he would be arrested.
Court documents show Lee is accused of messaging an underage LCHS student on Instagram using a fake username as @steven_smith_4. She told investigators she received several pornographic images and threatening and sexual messages.
Lee has been charged with two counts of felony harassment and one count of communication with a minor for immoral purposes.
“I’ll shoot up the school with u to go first,” Lee is accused of writing in the messages, according to court documents, among other threats.
Another girl told investigators she had heard about the messages sent to the underage student and decided to ask @steven_smith_4 why they would send such a thing.
“What’s wrong with you…It’s not even your school,” she wrote, according to court documents.
She said @steven_smith_4 had responded with the following: “It’s the right action to take but I won’t let you know cause you’ll be 1 of the first to go.”
Both girls said they observed the threatening account as posting “Special date planned for LCHS before the end of school…BE READY…I’m sry ahead of time for those who will not be alive the next day…”
The two girls spoke with detectives on May 28, and detectives tracked the Instagram account to an IP address in the area that led them to Lee.
The two girls said they did not go to class on May 30 due to the fear of being shot and a school shooting. That same day, according to court documents, police interviewed the suspect and he admitted to sending the messages.
“Lee denied that he was going to actually go and shoot anyone or go to Lewis and Clark to commit a school shooting,” investigators wrote in court documents. “Lee denied having any firearms or having access to any firearms.”