Four 19-year-olds from Laval who were arrested at gunpoint Tuesday as part of a large police operation in Deux-Montagnes have been released.
They were arrested after reports that a student at Polyvalente Deux-Montagnes might have been targeted for harassment on social media.
Deux-Montagnes police spokesperson Christopher Harding says the four were released after questioning — but not before they got a little bit of a talking-to about how to behave on social media.
"Following our investigation, all four individuals were released without any criminal charges brought upon them," Harding says, "except, of course, all four individuals were spoken to regarding the actions and the effects that they have when displaying certain things on social media and certain words and how they can be interpreted. Hopefully this will avoid any future incidents of this sort."
The police operation was apparently triggered after a student at Polyvalente Deux-Montagnes went to his principal to report that he was targeted by someone on Snapchat. The poster allegedly announced that he would be coming to the school to "take care of his case" — either at school or on the streets.
The student was apparently alarmed after he found the poster's profile on Facebook, which had the poster posing with firearms.
The school was placed on lockdown Tuesday afternoon for more than two hours while the operation went on.