San Antonio man charged after using AI chatbot to plot shooting at elementary school
Nathaniel Carrasco, 22, was arrested on 29 August and charged with making a terroristic threat after allegedly using an AI program to plan an attack on Serna Elementary School.
San Antonio man used Claude AI to plan mass shooting at North East ISD primary school, affidavit says
San Antonio police arrested a 22-year-old North Side man on 29 August after he allegedly used an artificial intelligence chatbot to plot a shooting at Serna Elementary School, a North East ISD campus, ksat.com reports.
Nathaniel Michael Carrasco was charged with making a terroristic threat, a third-degree felony. A judge set his bond at $250,000.
Threatening prompts entered on 11 August
According to Carrasco's arrest warrant, he allegedly typed several threatening prompts into Anthropic's Claude chatbot on 11 August, making "multiple queries threatening to kill school-age kids from Serna Elementary School." Anthropic is the artificial intelligence company behind the Claude chatbot.
In one alleged exchange, Carrasco wrote that he wanted to obtain "a gun as soon as I can" so he could "walk" into Serna Elementary and "start shooting up kids." In a separate message, he allegedly wrote: "I will do everything in my power to help create that reality. There shall be no escape, no matter what."
Detectives said Carrasco also asked the program to search for "dead school kids" and indicated he did not want the AI to discourage him from proceeding with the plan. "I hope I can get a gun so, that way, I can just shoot up a f------ school already," the warrant states, quoting Carrasco directly.
Threats went undetected for over two weeks
Although the alleged planning took place on 11 August, investigators said the threats were not brought to the attention of the FBI, San Antonio Police Department (SAPD), or the Southwest Texas Fusion Center until 28 August. The FBI and the Fusion Center identified Carrasco as the suspect through emergency requests submitted to his cellphone provider, internet service provider, and linked IP address, according to SAPD.
School left with incomplete information
In an email to ksat.com sent Tuesday morning, a North East ISD spokesperson said SAPD had informed the district on Sunday of "an individual who had made a general threat to 'a school.'" The district was told the individual lived near Serna Elementary, but that no specific school had been named as a target.
As a precaution, North East ISD deployed district police officers and members of its safety and security team to Serna Elementary on Monday. It was only after Carrasco's arrest that the district learned it had been given incomplete information and that Serna had been specifically mentioned in the threat. The spokesperson confirmed Carrasco was not a former student at the school. KSAT reached out to SAPD for a response to the district's statement; the story is to be updated with the department's reply.
Principal addresses parents
Serna Elementary School Principal Jennifer Lomas sent a message to parents explaining the sequence of events. "I want to reach out this evening because you may see news reports regarding a threat made toward Serna Elementary," Lomas wrote. "I want you to hear directly from me that we were not made aware of the specific threat toward Serna until this evening, when that information became public through the news."
Lomas confirmed that police presence had been deployed around the campus on Monday as a precaution, and said that had she known the day before that Serna was specifically named, she would have shared that information with staff and families immediately. "Law enforcement and our district are actively working on this situation and trying to determine why we were only given partial information about this threat," she added.
Parent reaction
KSAT spoke with Allison Luna, a mother of a Serna Elementary student, who said the situation had always been a concern at the back of her mind. "I guess what I was a little relieved that he wasn't going to be around for a little bit," Luna said. "She was safe here. Overall, it's a scary situation — you don't want that for any school, much less where your own child is going."
Luna said she heard about the threat on Monday night and did not fault the district or the school for failing to share information they themselves had not received.
Court date set for December
Court records show Carrasco is expected back in court for a pre-indictment hearing on 15 December.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)