Three arrested for making threats in clown masks

HEATH - Three people were arrested Thursday afternoon after reportedly wearing clown masks and yelling out car windows at other people.

The people, two adults and a juvenile, were arrested in a gas station parking lot in Heath.

According to court records, police were called after multiple people reported seeing a car driving around the parking lot of Heath High School. At least three people inside the vehicle were said to have been leaning out the windows, wearing clown masks and yelling that they were going to stab people.

Police were given a description of the vehicle involved and it was located a short distance away near the intersection of Ohio 79 and Dorsey Mill Road.

Officers reportedly asked the occupants of the vehicle to show their hands, due to the alleged threats made, but the occupants "did not comply well," according to records.

The front seat passenger, later identified as 19-year-old Jacob Cruse, eventually exited the vehicle and was taken into custody. A female and two males in the backseat and the driver were all detained as well.

Cruse and 21-year-old Benjamin Boyer reportedly admitted to officers they had picked the female up at the school and "put the masks on as a joke."

Reports of clowns prompting lockdowns unfounded

At least two students at the high school, the female passenger in the vehicle and one of the males in the backseat all wrote written statements for officers, according to records.

One of the students who heard the alleged threats in the parking lot wrote she was scared during the incident.

"I 100 percent believe in my heart they were NOT kidding at all," she wrote. "I felt very threatened."

Cruse, Boyer and one of the juveniles were all placed under arrest. Officers collected three masks from the vehicle as evidence, according to records. One of the three masks was a clown mask, the other two were masks made famous by the movie "Scream."

Cruse and Boyer were each charged with making a false alarm, a first-degree misdemeanor.

Both Cruse and Boyer reportedly admitted to seeing news coverage of multiple instances across Ohio of people dressing as clowns and threatening violence. Two schools in Cincinnati canceled classes Friday after a female was reportedly attacked in a parking lot by a person wearing a clown mask.

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In the last week, instances of people dressed as clowns causing alarm have been reported in multiple states.

Cruse and Boyer both appeared in Licking County Municipal Court Friday on the charges against them. Each entered a not guilty plea and was released on their own recognizance, according to court records.

If convicted, they would face a maximum sentence of up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The juvenile was charged in Licking County Juvenile Court with equivalency counts of disorderly conduct in a school zone and menacing. He is scheduled to appear in court next week.