Oklahoma man admits to phoning bomb threats to L.A. schools

An Oklahoma man has pleaded guilty to felony charges for phoning in bomb threats to five Los Angeles schools, two of which were elementary schools.

Marcus Jamal Sanchez, 45, of Blackwell, Oklahoma, admitted to one count of “making a threat through interstate commerce to damage and destroy buildings by fire and explosives,” according to the United States Department of Justice.

Sanchez, who also went by the name Marcus James Buchanan, was a former resident of Los Angeles, the DOJ said.

On the morning of Feb. 28, 2022, during a period of less than two hours, Buchanan called in bomb threats to two elementary schools, two middle schools and a high school in L.A.

In a call to one of the elementary schools, Buchanan threatened to shoot the children as they exited the building, the DOJ said.

Weeks later, on April 27 and 28, Buchanan called in two more bomb threats to schools he previously threatened, this time threatening to shoot more kids at other schools.

During one of those calls, Buchanan told a school employee there was a “bomb at your school, and we will shoot the kids when they get out of the school.” He added that the attacks would be payback for “not accepting me in ’86.”

He also said he would shoot the employee when they asked who was calling, authorities said at the time of his arrest.

The following day, Sanchez called the same school and said there was a pipe bomb on the property.

Later that same day, Sanchez called a different elementary school and threatened a shooting. “Stop playing games, you know who this is,” he said. “I am going to shoot the school. I know the kids are there.”

Following all three of those threatening phone calls, the schools were placed on lockdown and searched by authorities but nothing unusual was found.

Phone records showed that the threatening calls came from a number associated with Sanchez, according to an affidavit from the time of his arrest.

In June 2022, Sanchez, who was using the Buchanan alias at the time, was arrested, but was released on bond the following month and has remained free since.

He’s now in federal custody with a sentencing hearing scheduled for June 7. He could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison, authorities said.

United States Attorney Martin Estrada said Sanchez’s “reckless and irresponsible actions” put the lives of children, teachers and staff at risk.

“Schools should be safe havens for our kids, and my office will use the force of federal law, when necessary, to prosecute individuals who threaten the educational safety of our young people,” Estrada said.

Amir Ehsaei, the Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, called Sanchez’s threats a “depraved act” that drain valuable resources from law enforcement officers tasked with investigating them at the expense of taxpayers.

“Threats to vulnerable schoolchildren is incomprehensible to most and will not be tolerated by the FBI, nor the American people,” Ehsaei said.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department.

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