LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport Police Department has arrested two juveniles in connection to threatening phone calls made to Clear Lake High School and suspicious packages found at the school Wednesday evening.
Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen said two 17-year-old brothers were arrested in the case, which police began investigating on Wednesday.
Because of their ages, the names of the boys were not released by police.
Rasmussen said the threatening phone calls made locally also appear to be related to bomb threats made this week against other schools inside and outside of California – including the high school in Marysville, Wash., that was the site of a fatal shooting last year.
However, he cautioned the investigation remains under way and information is continuing to be developed.
“We have a lot of work to do,” he said.
At 2 p.m. Wednesday Lakeport Police officers were dispatched to Clear Lake High School to investigate the report of two calls from a person threatening to come to the school with an Uzi machine gun and to drop chemicals and bombs on the school at 5 p.m., Rasmussen said.
Lakeport Police met with the high school administration and began a criminal investigation, according to Rasmussen.
Police determined that the caller’s telephone number was a Skype default phone number used on outbound calls where callers do not have a Skype caller ID in place, Rasmussen said.
The number was assigned to Bakersfield, with no address. Rasmussen said the number also has been associated with a variety of scams and other harassing communications and is frequently used by cyber criminals for malware and other scams.
Rasmussen said the investigation continued throughout Wednesday afternoon and evening. His agency also provided the information on this case to the Northern California Regional Terrorism Threat Assessment Center.
At approximately 8:42 p.m. Wednesday, Lakeport Police officers again were dispatched to Clear Lake High School to investigate the report of a subject acting suspicious around the Marge Alakszay Center, Rasmussen said.
He said the reporting party checked the specific area where they saw the subject and located three boxes that were suspiciously wrapped with plastic and black tape.
Lakeport Police responded and located the packages. At that time, police requested assistance from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Lakeport Fire Department, Lakeport Public Works Department and the Napa County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad, Rasmussen said.
The campus was cleared, sealed and secured, and police officers waited for the arrival of the bomb squad, according to Rasmussen.
Rasmussen said the bomb squad arrived at approximately 11:40 p.m. and immediately began its assessment and investigation of the suspicious packages, which concluded in the packages being rendered safe by controlled explosion at 1:20 a.m. Thursday.
Followup investigation of the packages determined that they were inert, Rasmussen said.
Items of evidence were located in the packages that identified a Lakeport male juvenile and former student of Clear Lake High School as the suspect, Rasmussen said.
Lakeport Police officers immediately began completing an affidavit for search warrant for the suspect’s residence in north Lakeport, Rasmussen said. At approximately 7:43 a.m. a Lake County Superior Court judge authorized the search warrant.
At 8:15 a.m. Thursday, Lakeport Police officers and Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputies served the search warrant at the residence, where the suspect and his two juvenile brothers were detained for investigation, Rasmussen said.
Officers located evidence in the residence and suspect statements that confirmed that the suspicious packages found at the high school were made at the residence and placed on the school campus by one of the brothers, according to Rasmussen.
He said evidence indicated that one of the brothers was not involved with the packages and he later was released.
The original suspect and the second brother were arrested for charges including felony counts of terrorist threats, threatening to place a bomb at the location and placing a false bomb at the location, and a misdemeanor charge of possession of a lethal weapon on school grounds, Rasmussen said.
The brothers, both 17, were transported to the Lake County Probation Juvenile Hall where Rasmussen said they were booked shortly before 10 a.m. Thursday.
In addition to the investigation involving Clear Lake High, Rasmussen said police continued to investigate the original phone call threats and have now determined that schools in Oceanside, Calif., and Marysville, Wash. – along with one or more additional locations in the United States – received similar bomb threat calls Wednesday and Thursday from the same Skype telephone number.
“We are in contact with an investigator from the Marysville, Wash., Police Department regarding their investigation and believe that the threatening calls here are related to the ones there and in Oceanside, Calif.,” Rasmussen said.
Media reports said Marysville-Pilchuck High School was evacuated on Wednesday following a bomb scare, with additional threats phoned in Thursday morning. The school was the scene of a fatal shooting in October in which a freshman killed four students and then himself.
Oceanside High School, which received a threat Wednesday afternoon – after students had left – was put under modified lockdown and searched, with police finding no suspicious objects, according to news reports.
Rasmussen said the investigation regarding the phone threats and placement of packages is ongoing and police will provide further updates when available.
“We have items of seized evidence that will need to be examined for fingerprints and electronic evidence including a computer, video camera and cellular telephone that need examined for further leads,” Rasmussen said.
He added, “We want the public to be aware that we take these incidents very seriously as the safety of our schools is of the highest priority.”
Throughout the investigation, Rasmussen said the Lakeport Police Department maintained constant communication with the Lakeport Unified School District administration and city of Lakeport administration to ensure appropriate resources and additional emergency response if necessary.
The Lakeport Unified School District has always been prepared and trained for school lockdowns and evacuations if needed, Rasmussen said.
He said the Lake County Probation Department provided three peace officers to assign to the Lakeport Unified School District on Thursday, along with increased presence by the Lakeport Police Department.
“We sincerely thank our Lakeport Unified School District partners and local and regional law enforcement partners for their assistance in this investigation,” he said.
Teens arrested for bomb threats, suspicious packages at Clear Lake High; case may be related to out-of-state incidents
- Lake County News reports
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