Man charged with threatening to shoot kids as they got off bus at Eastpointe elementary

A 29-year-old man is facing charges in connection with calling a Eastpointe elementary school and threatening to shoot children as they got off the bus to go into the school, according to prosecutors.

Desmond Parks, 29, does not have any children who go to Forest Park Elementary School, but he has a friend whose child attends the school, according to a press release from the Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido's office.

“Threats to schools need to stop. Making a false threat against a school wastes tax dollars and takes resources away from people who need them," said Lucido said in a statement. "Imagine your mother not getting the ambulance she needs because it is parked at a school due to a school threat."

Parks allegedly called the school Monday and threatened to shoot children, according to the prosecutor's office.

He was charged with making a terroristic threat and false report of a felony. He faces up to 20 years in prison, if convicted, on the threat charge.

Eastpointe District Court Magistrate Mark Makoski set his bond at $1 million. If released, he must get a mental health evaluation, have no contact with the school, have no internet access and be fitted with a GPS tether, Makoski ruled.

False threats known as "swatting" have impacted schools across Michigan over the last year. At least seven high schools across Michigan were sent into lockdown mode or evacuated in early February in what some officials called a "coordinated campaign" of false threats. Among those targeted were high schools in Detroit, Jackson, Ann Arbor, Okemos and Portage.

A massive increase in threats against Metro Detroit schools in the wake of the Oxford High School shooting in November 2021 has led to an explosion in criminal charges being brought against the alleged perpetrators, The Detroit News reported in December.

kberg@detroitnews.com