Two juveniles are facing misdemeanor charges for falsely reporting on Saturday a person with a gun was at the Cortlandville Walmart, according to the Cortland County Sheriff’s Office.
The youths are facing charges of third-degree falsely reporting an incident and 6th-degree conspiracy, wrote Lt. Todd Caufield in a news release Friday. Caufield declined to release the juveniles’ names, ages or addresses. The juveniles will answer the charges through the Cortland County Probation Department, Caufield noted.
Under the portion of the Raise the Age law that went into effect in October 2018, children 16-years-old and younger that are charged with misdemeanor offenses are prosecuted in Family Court, according to a “Raise the Age” fact sheet. Cortland County Family Court has a court diversion program for juvenile delinquents that allows the probation department to oversee the case, according to the County’s website.
The County defines a juvenile delinquent as “a person over seven and less than sixteen years of age, who commits an act, which -- if committed by an adult -- would constitute a crime.” Under the diversion program, the children are required to write an apology letter, pay any restitution required and obey the law in the future, according to the County’s website.
The false reports spooked County residents and caused alarm on social media sites, prompting former residents to respond with concern and contact The Cortland Voice from as far away as Michigan.
“The initial report was that a Walmart employee had received two separate phone calls indicating a subject who was in possession of a gun had entered the store,” Caufield noted in the release. Walmart employees called 911 prompting Sheriff’s officers, Cortland City Police and State Police to respond.
The police and employees evacuated the store while other officers investigated and determined there was no shooter, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The false report came amid heightened national anxiety regarding mass shootings following the Aug. 3 El Paso shooting that killed 22 people at a Walmart and another shooting less than 24-hours later in Dayton, Ohio that killed nine people.