Arizona teen who praised Texas school shooting arrested, cops say

( NYPost.com )

An Arizona teenager who praised the Uvalde, Texas, school massacre and threatened mass shootings at a high school, police station and movie theater was arrested last weekend, cops said Monday.

Joshua Adam Bowen, 19, was charged Sunday with making terroristic threats and held on $150,000 bond after someone tipped off authorities to the disturbing comments he made online, the Casa Grande Police Department said in a news release.

“He threatened family and friends and praised the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas,” where a teenage gunman armed with an AR-15-style rifle slaughtered 19 children and two teachers, the release stated.

The FBI allegedly passed on word of the posts to police in Casa Grande, a city of 55,000 about an hour south of Phoenix. Police placed Bowen under surveillance and arrested him Sunday, police said.

He didn’t have guns on him but police said they identified information that led them to “believe he may have access to firearms,” according to the release.

“There is no doubt in my mind this individual was intent on hurting people and, ultimately would have a found a way to do it,” Case Grande Police Chief Mark McCrory said in a statement.

“Fortunately, we have great support at the local, state, and national level to identify these threats and in this instance these relationships functioned exactly as they should, and we were able to work together to stop a serious threat to our community.”

He urged residents to continue to report threats to law enforcement.