Litchfield, Conn. — Questions about when a menacing costume verges on a criminal threat swirled around this rural town after two high school sophomores were arrested and accused this week of dressing as the Columbine killers for Halloween and threatening to hurt other students.

The allegations, coming in an age of heightened awareness of mass shootings, landed with particular force in a town that, like many in western Connecticut, is still on edge three years after the massacre at the nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The students got word Thursday that the Litchfield Public Schools would seek to expel them, one of the boys’ lawyers, David Moraghan, said.

The students, whose names have not been released because they are juveniles, also appeared in court on charges of inciting injury to persons or property, a felony, and breach of peace, a misdemeanor. They were released to their parents after the hearing Thursday, a day after they were charged and sent to a juvenile detention center.

The State Police said the boys made “threats of bodily harm to other students,” and the Litchfield Public Schools superintendent said they went out for Halloween on Saturday night dressed in trench coats and sunglasses. But officials have declined to offer any additional details behind the charges, spawning rumors among parents and residents about what really happened Saturday night.

Moraghan offered the first detailed account on Thursday of how an ill-advised costume turned into criminal charges.

Moraghan said that on Saturday night, the boys went to a Halloween party on the town green that draws students from several schools who want to trick-or-treat and hang out with friends. He acknowledged they were dressed in distasteful costumes, but said they did not have “any object that can be used or perceived as a weapon.”

A group walked up to them, according to Moraghan’s account, and after commenting that they looked like the Columbine High School killers, someone added, “I bet you’re going to shoot up the school.”

Moraghan said, “There was a sarcastic response to that, and that was basically the end of it.” He said one girl told her parents, who then called the police. Investigators, in turn, searched the students’ cellphones and their homes, Moraghan said.

The State Police confirmed the home search but declined to answer questions about what they found. Moraghan said, “Nothing was found in either boy’s home that could in any way give credence to what they claim the boys were going to do.”

Prosecutors declined to answer questions about the case because the defendants were juveniles.

The Litchfield Public Schools superintendent, Lynn K. McMullin, said in an email Wednesday that “there was no credible threat and students were never in physical danger.” She did not respond to a message left for her Thursday.

The boys did not face any weapons charges.

Some residents here said the costumes played on widespread fears in a town that is less than an hour from Newtown, where the elementary school massacre took place, even if the costumes were only a hollow threat.

“Any threat made in Connecticut is taken very seriously because of what happened here,” said James O’Shea, a longtime resident and co-owner of West Street Grill, which overlooks the town green. “You can’t joke about something so lethal. The loss of children and the devastation for the parents — it just destroys the community and whole state.”

Others said that if the boys did not intend to execute a threat of violence, there were better ways to handle the situation.

“It’s a prank,” Joe Radano said. “They shouldn’t be charged with a felony. You’re going to ruin a kid’s life? Now everyone is going to look down on them. This is a small community.”

Opinions about the arrests were sometimes mixed within the same families.

Jared Guilmart, a freshman at Litchfield High School, stopped at a Dunkin’ Donuts with his mother, Deb Guilmart, after school. “I think it was stupid,” Jared said, referring to the costumes, but he added that he thought the charges were justified.

Guilmart was not so sure. “I don’t honestly know all the facts. but I think it was overblown,” she said. “The school sent us a text and an email and I was like, ‘Holy cow.’ This is Litchfield.”

A lawyer for the second boy declined to comment on the case. One of the boys’ fathers, reached at the family’s home, told a reporter, “I’m sorry, I really have nothing to say.”

Moraghan said: “There was no risk of anyone being injured, assaulted or harmed. I think it was a very bad Halloween costume two kids thought of that they never thought of the consequences.”

He added that “both boys are so remorseful for their stupidity,” and said he worried the looming expulsion “is going to be really, really hard on both of them.”