CSULB campus lockdown lifted, 1 person in custody

A lockdown ordered after a threat on the Cal State Long Beach campus on Monday, Oct. 7, was lifted after authorities took one person into custody.

The sole suspect, believed to be a female student, was taken into custody and there is no ongoing threat, University Police Chief Fernando Solorzano said at a Monday evening news conference.

“It was an email that was shared with us,” Solorzano said. “An email that reflected acts of violence.”

The threat did involve weapons, Solorzano added.

University police got the call about the email at around 2:10 p.m., he said, and after an assessment of the threat sent out the alerts to shelter in place. The order was lifted after a suspect was taken into custody, university officials said in an e-mail sent at 4:23 p.m.

It was unclear whether the threat targeted a specific location on campus. But “we had information that the suspect had an appointment at our Student Success Center, so that’s where our focus was,” Solorzano said.

The Student Success Center, located at Peterson Hall 2 in the middle of the campus, is a center for student services and resources.

Solorzano did not say where the suspect was arrested.

“There was no struggle,” he said. “(The suspect) was taken into custody without further problem.”

Campus police officials on social media at about 3:50 p.m. said they received a credible threat Monday, and campus officials and police distributed a warning to students and staff via email and social media ordering every person on campus to move indoors and shelter in place immediately. They recommended all others stay away from the area.

CSULB BeachALERT! The campus has received a credible threat. Everyone on campus is to move indoors and shelter in place immediately. If not on campus, stay away until further notice. #CSULB

— CSULB Police Dept (@CSULBPolice) October 7, 2019

When the lockdown lifted, classes resumed for the rest of the day. By 5:30 p.m., students were walking around campus to class and university police cars could be seen cruising through campus.

The threat on Monday comes a few months after someone wrote a school shooter threat in graffiti on a campus bathroom stall in May, which caused some students and staff to postpone or skip classes during finals week.

Solorzano said Monday’s incident is believed to be an isolated threat.

Cal State Long Beach Provost Brian Jersky said that the university understands this type of order is alarming, but the university must take these threats seriously.

“Law enforcement will pursue all legal actions,” Jersky added.

People stuck on campus during the lockdown formed makeshift barricades out of stacks of chairs to block doors. Ivet Ramirez, 21, of Long Beach, said she, her classmates and their professor sat together in silence on the floor of a classroom with the lights shut off.

“There wasn’t much conversation,” the communications major said. “Everyone was really anxious.”

She and other students hiding with her closely monitored their phones for updates from authorities. They also received numerous messages from concerned people both on and off campus.

Most were relieved when authorities announced that any potential danger in the area had passed, but many remained somewhat unnerved, Ramirez said. She was going to stay on campus for a few hours after her last class to study, but decided to change her plans and head straight home instead.

“I think that’s what most people are doing,” she said. “I think we’re pretty over it now.”

Multiple people on social media expressed concerns about the lack of locks for doors inside classrooms.

Was teaching my lecture during @csulb active shooter. My room has FOUR points of entry—none of which can be locked. All the desks are bolted to the floor. This is what we had do to protect ourselves. We should have doors that lock and clear protocol for these situations! pic.twitter.com/R6RmD6CqM5

— Ragan Fox (@RaganFox) October 8, 2019

Cal State Long Beach spokesman Jeff Cook said the university is currently working to add locks to all of its doors on campus. The university recently made an approximate $500,000 investment to renovate the doors, he said.

“The university fully understands the need in (this) time that doors in classrooms have the ability to be locked,” Cook said. “Many universities are facing that challenge.”

Some of the new locks are already in place, Cook added.

But some students had additional concerns.

Graduate student Jaimee Bell, 28, said that she felt staff wasn’t properly trained on how to handle a lockdown situation.

She was walking back to her car on lower campus when the campus threat alert went out, when staff urged her to come inside a building. But what troubled her was that staff continued to allow people in, Bell added.

“I worked in K-12 schools in the past,” she said. ” (But the university staff) didn’t cover the door window, they didn’t turn off the lights, they didn’t tell us to crouch down or be quiet. When passersbys came by, this particular building’s staff asked people to come inside, way after we were already inside.”

Meanwhile freshmen Anna Martinez, 18, and Lauren Pimento, 18, felt safe in their professor’s classroom. Even when a passerby pounded on their classroom door, their professor didn’t open it, Martinez said.

The freshmen said that while the incident was scary, it could’ve gone worse.

“I just felt desensitized,” Pimento said. “It’s just not a big shock anymore, which is really bad. It shouldn’t be like that.”