Pierce College Evacuated After Threat Posted on Social Media

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Originally posted at 10:42 a.m. Oct, 16, 2014. Edited with new details.

Pierce College is set to reopen this afternoon after sheriff’s detectives arrested a 26-year-old man accused of making an online threat to bring a gun to campus today, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said.

“Detectives arrested a 26-year-old man off campus for allegedly making a threat on social media to bring a gun to school,” sheriff’s department spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said. “The arrest took place about 12:30 p.m. and the school is completely safe.”

Nishida said the suspect, a former Pierce College student, would probably be booked on suspicon of making a criminal threat.

How detectives tracked the man down was not divulged.

According to the school’s Facebook page, the campus will reopen and classes will resume at 3:30 p.m.

School officials made the decision to evacuate the campus after a threat was made via social media, sheriff’s Deputy Tony Moore said.

In the confusion that followed the school shutdown, reports surfaced that a gunman had been seen on campus, but Moore said those reports were untrue.

The shutdown and evacuation of the campus in the 6200 block of Winnetka Avenue began about 8 a.m., sheriff’s department officials said.

No one at the school or at the Board of Trustees could be reached for comment.

Pierce College, a two-year institution, is part of the nine-campus Los Angeles Community College District.

It serves more than 21,000 students, according to the school. The campus, opened in 1947, covers about 426 acres in the western San Fernando Valley.

--City News Service

PHOTO Patch file photo.

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