Friday bomb threats under investigation

“There’s no need for it. It’s one bio test,” said freshman Adrienne DiFonso, who has had two… “There’s no need for it. It’s one bio test,” said freshman Adrienne DiFonso, who has had two of her biology tests interrupted due to the recent Friday-morning bomb threats on Clapp and Langley halls.

“It has to be one of the students,” DiFonso said.

Pitt police Chief Timothy Delaney believes this is a definite possibility, but is trying not to rule out other options.

“You try not to have tunnel vision so you include all possibilities,” Delaney said. “You include disgruntled employees and people who have no connection to the University.”

Delaney said that the Pitt police are working in conjunction with several local organizations to try to catch the person or people responsible for this semester’s threats.

Two threats have been received this semester for Clapp and Langley Halls – the first on Friday, Sept. 28 and the most recent on Friday, Nov. 16.

A bomb threat on Chevron Hall was received on Friday, Nov. 9.

All three threats were received in the morning between 8:45 and 9:45 a.m.

“We are actively pursuing all of the leads and looking for patterns,” Delaney said. “There are some innovative things we’re doing.”

Delaney would not release details on suspects or how he plans to catch them because the investigation is still going on. He did say, however, that this year’s threats came from the same location.

“Whoever’s out there is still doing this,” Delaney said. “In the ones we’ve had this year, all have gone to the Alleghany dispatch 911. They called us on the radio.”

Once Delaney receives word that a threat has been made, he begins a dialogue with Alleghany 911 to try to get more specific information.

“When the call comes in, you try to obtain as much information as you can,” Delaney said. “Then you start to assess what we need to do as fast as we can.”

Delaney consults with University officials before sending out an alert via the emergency notification system.

“The design is that, depending on the threat, it’s a combination of what information we have and what the executive vice chancellor Jerome Cochran says. I fall under him,” Delaney said.

The amount of time it takes for the message to get out varies.

In an interview with WTAE-TV following a threat in September, Brian Stengel, who works in computing services, said that the emergency alert was sent out about 24 minutes after the threat was received. From that point on, it’s a matter of getting the message to transfer from the system to the students.

“It really depends on how many subscribers there are,” Sergeant Bart Stack, who supervises communications, said. “The vast majority go out for the telephone. That’s probably under 20 minutes to get everything.”

Delaney said that so far this year, an alert has been sent out for every bomb threat the University has received.

“It used to be the more information you had the more you worried,” Delaney said, “but 9/11 changed that. You have to assume that everything is serious. You can’t trivialize anything.”

Because of this, Delaney said he will continue to send out alerts for any threats he receives for University buildings, including Clapp and Langley halls.

But wouldn’t that give the perpetrator attention?

“I hope so,” Delaney said. “I want them to feel like I’m right there.”

He also wants them to feel the impact of their actions.

“I think it would be safe to say that the authorities would probably make an example out of whoever’s doing this,” Delaney said.

The person or people making these threats may be subject to the felony charges of causing risk or catastrophe, giving false alarms to agencies of public safety and threat to use weapons of mass destruction.

A threat to use weapons of mass destruction charge can, according to the Pennsylvania Crimes Code, be considered a third degree felony if “the report or threat causes the occupants of building, place of assembly or facility of public transportation to be diverted from their normal or customary operations.”

This could play a critical role in prosecuting the person or people behind the attacks, as the threats have caused the Pitt police to evacuate the buildings and perform a search of the premises.

“It’s quite impressive to see,” Delaney said. “It’s like water flowing out of the building.”

After the building is evacuated officer Dave Nanz and his search dog arrive on the scene.

Nanz wouldn’t give details as to how officers search University buildings, because that information would make it easier for someone to plant a bomb in them. Instead, he described how they search high schools in the area.

“High school teachers [check] their classrooms,” Nanz said. “We evacuate the school. Each dog gets a floor. We check classrooms, lockers, the cafeteria, places the public has access to.”

The duration of the search varies each time.

“It depends on the size of the building and how many dogs you have,” Nanz said.

The team continues to search the building until they feel as though they have covered all their bases.

“We set up a uniform command,” Delaney said. “We meet somewhere, usually with the building manager, maybe the dean – someone who has background information on the building, who can tell you how many exits there are and how many employees are in the building. In the old days, we would physically walk through and say ‘Is there anything unusual?’ They would try to make a bomb look familiar.”