Cazenovia police believe they are close to an arrest in the case of the Cazenovia College bomb threat that occurred late Tuesday night, Sept. 16, and the culprit, when caught, will face felony charges for making a terrorist threat and could face time in state prison.
“Hopefully we’ll have some sort of successful conclusion by tomorrow,” said Cazenovia Police Chief Michael Hayes on Thursday. “This is an intensive effort, with a lot of manpower on it … and [the perpetrator(s)] will be prosecuted.”
The incident happened around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night, when a bomb threat was issued against the college on a social media application called Yik Yak, Hayes said.
The college immediately called police and sent CazAlert text messages to more than 750 students in five residence halls instructing them to evacuate and proceed to the designated safety staging area to await further instructions, according to a statement issued by college President Mark Tierno.
After more than 90 minutes of investigation – including building searches by K9 units and law enforcement personnel – police officers found no explosive devices. Police and college officials determined at 12:09 a.m. that the situation was safe and allowed student back into their residence halls, Tierno said.
Hayes said his department currently has three investigators working the case and following up leads, and they are working together with New York State Police and the Madison County Sheriff’s Office. County and state authorities also assisted with the investigation on Tuesday night, he said.
Hayes said officials at Yik Yak have been “very cooperative” throughout the investigation, beginning on Tuesday night, and investigators are also working with cell phone carriers to determine the identification of the account subscriber.
Hayes said the charges faced in this case will be for making a terrorist threat, a class D felony, the punishment for which is time in state prison.
Wayne Westervelt, Cazenovia College vice president for marketing and communications, said the college will file charges against the culprit(s) when they are caught.
“We extend sincere thanks to our law enforcement partners and the college employees who worked diligently this evening and early morning to ensure the safety of our students,” Tierno said in a released statement. “I also extend thanks to our students for taking the matter seriously and cooperating with police and college personnel so that we could address the situation and return our campus to normalcy.”
Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia Republican. He can be reached at [email protected].
