A student at East Boston High School was taken into ICE custody after he was arrested Wednesday for allegedly threatening to “shoot up” the school, officials said.
Kevin Vasquez Funes, 19, was arrested by Boston police and charged under the so-called bomb threat statute, which also covers threats to do harm with a gun or other weapon, said Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney’s office.
He was ordered held on $5,000 bail at an arraignment hearing in East Boston Municipal Court Thursday and told to return to court on March 14, Wark said.
ICE agents then arrested the El Salvador native at his home on Friday, according to John Mohan, a spokesman for the agency.
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“Agency records indicate he illegally entered the US in 2015, and he will remain in ICE custody pending immigration proceedings,” Mohan said. “If his immigration case is resolved before criminal charges are, ICE will make the necessary notifications to local authorities.”
Daniel O’Brien, a spokesman for the Boston Public Schools, confirmed Vasquez Funes was a student at the school but wouldn’t elaborate on the threats he allegedly made.
In an automated phone call sent to East Boston High families, the school system said he “made verbal threats of violence toward our school community.”
“Our staff immediately took action and contacted Boston School Police and the Boston Police Department,” the call said.
O’Brien said ICE did not notify the school system that a student had been detained, and ICE officials never entered the school.
“BPS has strong protocol that advises school leaders to contact Boston Police and the BPS Legal Office if ICE were to ever appear at a school looking to detain an individual,” he said.
Boston police referred all questions about the incident to the district attorney’s office.
Dylan McGuinness can be reached at dylan.mcguinness@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DylMcGuinness.
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