Middle-School Substitute Teacher Threatens To Shoot Up Unruly Class: 'I Have A Gun'

Police have apprehended a Queens substitute teacher on Wednesday for allegedly threatening to shoot up a group of unruly middle schoolers during an art lesson in Maspeth.

The suspect, Alejandro Rocha, 52, of Sunnyside, has been charged with making a terroristic threat after bullying the art class at Intermediate School 5 Walter Crowley School just after 2 p.m. on Wednesday, the New York Post reported.

"If you won't do as you're told, I'm gonna shoot you and yes, I have a gun," he reportedly told a group of nine kids, ages 11 and 12.

Although none of the students complained about the unpleasant remark, Rocha himself decided to confess what he had said to a supervisor and apologized for his behavior.

He claimed it was all a bad joke because the class had just become unruly. Rocha was arrested some four hours later, charged by police from the 110th Precinct in Elmhurst, according to the Daily Mail.

“This is absolutely unacceptable,” a Department of Education spokesperson said in a statement. “The substitute teacher was immediately suspended and if this deeply disturbing allegation is found to be true, he will be fired.”

Rocha began as a substitute teacher in September 2001 and held no prior disciplinary history. He has been suspended without pay, currently deemed ineligible to work in any city school for the department.

The Sunnyside resident is now awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court following his disturbing threat. It comes just two weeks after a man was nabbed by police in Watertown for the same offense, WIVT noted.

According to the Watertown City Police Department, suspect Michael J. Tweedy, 30, allegedly called in threats at Planet Fitness at 1222 Arsenal Street and then at the Skyline Apartments at 454 Mill Street on June 25, 2021.

Authorities say these threats subsequently led to the evacuation of several individuals for an extended time as bomb detection dogs search both buildings.

Tweedy was booked at the City of Watertown Police Station where he will be detained until arraignment.