Texas woman arrested in New Jersey college threats

By JANET FRANKSTON LORIN
Associated Press Writer

JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- Authorities say they have tracked down the source of threatening e-mails, that along with a seemingly unrelated handwritten note, caused the lockdown of St. Peter's College campus for nearly five hours on Wednesday.

Jersey City police said Friday that authorities in Corpus Christi, Texas, arrested 18-year-old Christy Perez on charges of making terroristic threats and causing a false public alarm. Police said the high school student was taken into custody shortly after 4 p.m. Friday. She was awaiting processing Friday night at the Nueces County Jail. It was not immediately clear if she had retained a lawyer.

Jersey City Police Chief Tom Comey said investigators traced a series of anonymous e-mails allegedly sent by Perez on Tuesday and Wednesday to the 19-year-old female roommate of her boyfriend.

Perez had met the boyfriend, a 19-year-old St. Peter's College freshman, online, Comey said.

Police said there was no romantic relationship between the boyfriend and the roommate, who live in an off-campus apartment. But Comey said Perez was jealous. The roommate is not enrolled this semester but is involved with campus clubs, police said. Police declined to name the boyfriend or the roommate.

Police said the roommate reported the e-mail threats to authorities on Tuesday night, including one that referred to a meeting the roommate was supposed to attend on the St. Peter's campus on Wednesday.

"You cannot simply hit a send button and think that nothing's going to happen," Comey said.

When a separate, handwritten note threatening violence was found Wednesday morning taped to a wall in a campus building, authorities ordered the campuswide lockdown.

At a Friday news conference, police said there now appears to be no connection between the e-mails and the threatening note, which referenced last year's campus shootings at Virginia Tech that left 33 people dead including gunman Seung-Hui Cho.

Comey described the timing as "a coincidence" and said police are still investigating to try to determine who posted the note.

The college was put on lockdown for nearly five hours as police with bomb-sniffing dogs conducted a building by building search for explosives.

Authorities have not released the specific contents of either the e-mails or the note, but have said the e-mails threatened violence against the individual while the note was a more general threat against the campus.

The college president, Eugene J. Cornacchia, has described the wording of the note as "chilling."

Note on Wall Shuts College in Jersey City

New York Times
By TINA KELLEY
Published: February 21, 2008

Hundreds of students and faculty members were evacuated from classrooms and buildings on the campus of St. Peter?s College in Jersey City for about two hours on Wednesday after officials at the Jesuit institution discovered a handwritten note taped to a hallway wall. A college spokeswoman said the note referred to the massacre of more than 30 students and teachers at Virginia Tech in April.

The college was locked down about 10:45 a.m., evacuated after 1 p.m., and closed until about 3 p.m., when the police declared the buildings safe to re-enter.

The anonymous note, discovered in the late morning, contained only about 15 words, said Jerramiah T. Healy, the mayor of Jersey City. It frightened school officials enough to close down the campus immediately, said Lorraine McConnell, the spokeswoman for the college, which has about 3,000 students.

Thomas J. Comey, the Jersey City police chief, said that when officers arrived, they ordered an evacuation of all the buildings on campus.

?We want to err on the side of caution and get everybody out in one piece,? Chief Comey said.

The threat came at a time of heightened security on college campuses in the wake of a series of school shootings, including one last week on the campus of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill., where a gunman killed five people before turning his gun on himself.
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Yes, you're correct. There was a bomb threat against Liberty Towers earlier today (I don't know how it was delivered) - we got notes slipped under our doors in the late afternoon about it saying the threat was for 8:00pm tonight.

The bomb squad was supposedly here and found nothing.

We haven't heard anything since then however. I saw many people with small children leaving around 7 or so, though it seems most have returned now.

Looks like there is/was also a bomb scare at liberty towers. Anyone else heard anything?

It says on this page that lockdown has been lifted already:


Quote:

More on this link

St. Peter's College on lock down

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 | 12:01 PM

School officials say due to suspicious activity on the campus

JERSEY CITY (WABC) -- Eyewitness News has learned of a lockdown at St. Peter's College in Jersey City.

The lockdown, according to school officials has been in effect since 10:42 a.m., due to suspicious activity.

According to Jersey City Fire Chief William Sinnott says the college received emails from a "disgruntled student" stating he placed bombs placed in several buildings.

He says the school activated a lockdown and is acting out of an abundance of caution.
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Eyewitness News is told that no faculty or students have been allowed to enter or leave the campus.

The school's web site has posted:
"Please remain inside the building you are currently in until further notice. The College is under lock down for a safety investigation."

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=5969361

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/st.peters.lockdown.2.658533.html

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008 ... college_in_jersey_ci.html

http://www.nj.com/hudsoncountynow/ind ... _on_lockdown_since_1.html