Lindenhurst teen charged in bomb threat

A Lindenhurst High School teenager was arrested Monday and charged with reporting a false bomb threat last week, one that warned that a device would go off at the high school Tuesday, Suffolk police said.

Dominique Best, 16, an 11th grader at the high school, was charged as an adult with falsely reporting an incident in the first degree, a D felony. A D felony conviction is punishable by up to 7 years in prison.

Det. Lt. Robert Edwards said Best as a prank left a notice on Thursday of the bomb treat on a school computer. She might not have realized the ramifications of that act, he said.

"We treat these things as real until we determine otherwise," Edwards said. Parents were notified about the threat, extra school district security was planned for Tuesday, and Suffolk police were assigned to the school. "There's a cost to the taxpayers," Edwards said.

"Police officers were scheduled to come in on overtime. . . . We're using police resources who might have been doing other things." Edwards said their investigation is continuing, but there's no indication there ever was an actual device, and it does not appear that others were involved in the prank.

Best was to be held overnight in police custody, pending arraignment Tuesday in First District Court, Central Islip.

Detectives asked that anyone with additional information contact the First Squad at 631-854-8152 or Crime Stoppers at 800-220-TIPS.