Authorities in Pontiac, Michigan, likely stopped a mass shooting at a high school graduation ceremony earlier this week, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard revealed on Friday.

On Tuesday, Sheriff’s deputies were called to break up a fight at the Arts and Technology Academy of Pontiac graduation, and after arriving, were told about a shooting threat posted on social media, The Detroit News reported. Aided by security footage from the United Wholesale Mortgage’s Sports Complex, where the graduation was taking place, authorities discovered that two men had placed packages underneath vehicles. Both packages contained handguns with 40-round magazines.

“When you combine that with the post that had been seen, that someone planned to shoot up this graduation, in our business we call that a clue,” Sheriff Bouchard said. “These weren’t brought to be simple accessories. … I believe we probably prevented a mass shooting.”

“Just those two weapons, without changing magazines, had 80 rounds of potential firepower,” Bouchard added. “Shooting into a graduation, you can only imagine the outcome of that.”

Deputies arrested a 19-year-old suspect, but are still looking for 20-year-old Jamarion Hardiman, a person of interest in the alleged mass shooting plot, according to The Detroit News. The Snapchat post where the threat was made has been taken down, but according to people who saw the post, it mentioned “going to shoot up the crowd,” according to Bouchard.

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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said on Friday that her “office has been in touch with local officials. I am grateful to first responders for acting fast and saving lives in Pontiac.”

The graduation ceremony proceeded after only two minutes of disruption, according to Septembra Williams, superintendent of the Arts and Technology Academy of Pontiac. Both of the suspects in the alleged shooting threat “have a history of being involved with weapons and violence,” and the 20-year-old person of interest is currently on probation for a previous weapons case, according to Sheriff Bouchard.

Authorities do not believe that either of the two suspects attended the Arts and Technology Academy of Pontiac, but they likely had family and friends at the graduation ceremony.

In November of 2021, Oxford High School — less than 20 miles north of Pontiac — was targeted in a mass shooting, where a teenage shooter killed four students and wounded seven other people.