Columbine HS Bomb Threat Was Not Like Other U.S. Incidents

LITTLETON, CO – The reported bomb threat at Columbine High School Thursday did not follow a similar pattern to other online threats that evacuated schools and businesses across the country.

"We received a threat through a phone call," said Mike Taplin, public information officer for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office. "There was no email, no mention of Bitcoin."

Although the threat was determined to be a hoax, it did not follow the same scheme as the national wave of threats announced Thursday by the FBI. Emailed bomb threats were were reported in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Georgia, Oklahoma, Florida, Virginia, Indiana, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Iowa and California, as well as at other schools in Colorado.

Related: Bomb Threats Emailed Nationwide Demanding Bitcoin Payment

The JeffCo Sheriff's office cleared the school at 6201 S Pierce St. in Jefferson County on Thursday afternoon after an investigation. Students were released to parents around 2:45 p.m.

Around 9:22 a.m., a caller dispatchers told sheriff's deputies that a caller from Columbine said "someone's placed 15 pipe bombs" another call said the threat was "in the cafeteria." Around 9:30, dispatchers said a person identifying himself as a 19-year-old male had called, said he was suicidal and saying he had an AR-15 and planned to shoot people evacuating the school.

Deputies and emergency personnel were told to be on the lookout for a male wearing a "red jersey and carrying a blue backpack," who was reported seen across the street from the school, dispatchers told deputies. JeffCo School District posted on Facebook that schools were on lockout after reports of a "suspicious person."

No person was found or taken into custody after the perimeter of the campus had been searched, Taplin told reporters around 11 a.m.

"Unfortunately, we receive many threats like this to Columbine," Taplin said. "We respond to each threat appropriately... Right now everyone is safe and we are asking people to stay out of the area."

The JeffCo School District temporarily put 22 schools on "lockout" status while the investigation took place. That lockout was lifted by the afternoon.

Columbine High School was the scene of one of the nation's first modern-day school mass shootings on April 20, 1999.

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