A bomb threat phoned in to Southwest Texas Junior College at 3:00 PM Thursday resulted in the campus evacuating and closing in Uvalde. The SWTJC Facebook Page was updated with several posts after the initial threat.
Around the noon hour Thursday a bomb threat was issued at the University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA) Downtown Campus but was quickly cleared by law enforcement. It is not clear if the two bomb threats are related.
Posted late Thursday afternoon:
SWTJC received a bomb threat at approximately 3 p.m. All students, and personnel were evacuated. Law enforcement cleared the building for which the threat was issued, and law enforcement officers are currently awaiting the arrival of explosive-detecting canines from San Antonio. College officials ask the public to stay away until further notice.
A update posted one hour after the initial post
This afternoon a call was received by the Uvalde Police Department regarding a bomb placed in the Art Building on the college campus.
Uvalde Police Department notified SWTJC Campus Police of the threat.
The campus immediately evacuated the Art Building and the adjacent buildings.
The college was hosting a kids college camp in the gym – they were immediately evacuated to the cafeteria and parents were notified to pick up kids at a new location.
A Safe Alert Notification to shelter in place was sent out.
Responding officers cleared the Art Building and noted no suspicious items.
We then proceeded to clear adjacent buildings. Upon clearing, a second Safe Alert Notification was sent at 4:07 p.m. advising employees to evacuate the campus as a safety precaution.
Law enforcement officers were dispatched to each building to escort them to the parking lots.
Law Enforcement then proceeded to verify each building and was cleared of students and personnel.
At approximately 4:18 p.m. we published our first press release via social media advising of our shelter in place due to the bomb threat.
Second press release was issued at 4:19 p.m. updating that the campus was being evacuated and waiting for bomb detecting canines to formally clear each building.
The third press release was issued at 5:20 p.m. providing an overview of the incident.
First set of bomb detecting canines arrived from Laughlin AFB at approximately 6:13 p.m. and began to clear the threat.
A DPS drone was requested to fly over the campus at low elevation to verify no suspicious packages on the roofs.
We will provide an additional update once all buildings have been formally cleared.
All clear given at approximately 7:30 PM
At approximately 7:30 p.m. we were given the all clear to the bomb threat on campus.
We wish to thank the response and cooperation of all the law enforcement agencies that assisted with clearing the bomb threat. Texas Department of Public Safety (Patrol Division and Criminal Investigation Division), Uvalde Sheriff Department, Uvalde Police Department, ATF, and U.S. Department of Defense, our Campus Police department, Uvalde Fire Department, Sabinal PD, Texas Game Wardens, U.S. Border Patrol, Uvalde County Constables, Office of Emergency Management, and the college administrative team. We observed all agencies working together as a team to address the safety of our campus.
