(1) A person is guilty of terroristic threatening in the first degree when he or she:
- (a) Intentionally makes false statements that he or she or another person has placed a weapon of mass destruction on: 1. The real property or any building of any public or private elementary or secondary school, vocational school, or institution of postsecondary education; 2. A school bus or other vehicle owned, operated, or leased by a school; 3. The real property or any building public or private that is the site of an official school-sanctioned function; The real property or any building owned or leased by a government agency; The real property or any building owned or leased by a domestic violence shelter as defined in KRS 511.085; 4. 5. 6. Any workplace; or 7. The real property or any building public or private that is the site of any gathering of three (3) or more persons; or
- (b) Intentionally and without lawful authority, places a counterfeit weapon of mass destruction at any location or on any object specified in paragraph (a) of this subsection.
- (2) A counterfeit weapon of mass destruction is placed with lawful authority if it is placed, with the written permission of the chief officer of the school or other institution, as a part of an official training exercise and is placed by a public servant, as defined in KRS 522.010.
- (3) A person is not guilty of commission of an offense under this section if he or she, innocently and believing the information to be true, communicates a threat made by another person to school personnel, domestic violence shelter personnel, a peace officer, a law enforcement agency, a public agency involved in emergency response, or a public safety answering point and identifies the person from whom the threat was communicated, if known.
- (4) Terroristic threatening in the first degree is a Class C felony.
Effective: July 15, 2024
History: Amended 2024 Ky. Acts ch. 174, sec. 34, effective July 15, 2024. -- Amended 2022 Ky. Acts ch. 163, sec. 1, effective July 14, 2022. -- Created 2001 Ky. Acts ch. 113, sec. 1, effective June 21, 2001.