An unfounded threat of widespread violence targeting Los Angeles schools Tuesday made passing mention of plans to spread the mayhem into San Diego, authorities acknowledged Wednesday.
The anonymous email, sent to Los Angeles Unified School District board members Tuesday, described a supposed scheme to bomb numerous LAUSD campuses and included similarly menacing statements about other Southern California communities and New York.
Authorities in San Diego — who did not receive the threatening message themselves but got word of it secondhand — investigated and decided that the threats were not credible, but took some added local security steps to be on the safe side, according to city officials.
“The email, which focused almost entirely on Los Angeles, referred to San Diego in passing, along with other Southern California cities,” said Matt Awbrey, spokesman for Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s office.
“The San Diego Police Department and San Diego Unified police did not believe the message posed a credible threat, but in an abundance of caution provided extra patrols at local schools,” he said. “San Diego law enforcement will continue to coordinate with state and federal officials and remain vigilant.”
The threat, which prompted daylong closures of more than 900 LAUSD campuses in the nation’s second-largest school district, did not specifically mention San Diego schools, only the city in general.
“If you look at the words, it’s very vague,” SDPD public-affairs Lt. Scott Wahl said.
According to Los Angeles-based ABC7, which obtained and released the threatening message in its entirety, the email included the following statement: “If you cancel classes, the bombings will take place regardless, and we will bring our guns to the streets and offices of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Bakersfield and San Diego.”
— City News Service
