Authorities investigate bomb threats made to at least 4 Hampton Roads universities
Authorities are investigating a series of bomb threats made Tuesday against several universities and colleges in Hampton Roads and eastern Virginia.
Regent University in Virginia Beach, Tidewater Community College in Chesapeake, Virginia Peninsula Community College in Hampton, and Norfolk State University all received threats Tuesday, according to school and public safety officials.
Also on Tuesday, the Franklin campus of Paul D. Camp Community College and Eastern Shore Community College in Accomack County received bomb threats. All six threats came in between 11:11 a.m., starting with Regent, and 1:23 p.m. to Eastern Shore.
No explosives were found on any of the campuses. Community colleges in Ohio, North Carolina, Texas, Maryland, Kansas, Louisiana, West Virginia, have also received bomb threats over the last two weeks, according to media reports.
TCC Chesapeake received a threat of a backpack bomb with a timer located in an unknown area on campus, according to the Chesapeake Fire Department. It was unclear if the other universities received threats that were similar in nature.
Chesapeake fire officials said the initial report regarding TCC came in at 11:21 a.m. The college was evacuated and the school sent out a campus-wide notification and told people to stay clear of police activity.
About 180 students, faculty and staff were on on TCC’s Chesapeake campus Tuesday morning when the threat was made, said TCC spokesperson Laura Sanford. Chesapeake police and fire departments were on the scene of the TCC on Cedar Road at 11:47 a.m. and gave the “all clear” at 11:58 a.m., she said
“There were no explosive devices found and an all-clear was given to reoccupy the building,” said Capt. Steve Bradley with the Chesapeake Fire Department. “The investigation will continue in coordination with neighboring cities who received similar threats.”
University and Virginia Beach police conducted a sweep of the Regent campus and issued an “all clear” at 1:10 p.m., allowing the campus to reopen, according to Chris Roslan, a spokesperson for Regent.
Roslan did not provide an exact number of people who were on Regent’s campus at the time of the threat but said there were “very few” due to summer break.
Virginia Peninsula Community College police received a call of a threat at 12:18 p.m., prompting them to notify Hampton police and fire. A K-9 unit searched Hastings Hall on the Hampton campus but did not locate any device. Everyone was cleared to return to the building by 2:18 p.m., according to a spokesperson for the college.
“No one was injured or ever in danger,” said Kelvin Maxwell, chief of the campus police.
At NSU, a university spokesperson said the call regarding a bomb threat in the university’s administration building was made to Norfolk police just before noon. All students, faculty and staff were relocated and police searched the building. No explosives were found and an all clear was issued at 1:17 p.m.
Tidewater Community College, a public community college with four campuses in South Hampton Roads, enrolled nearly 25,000 students across the region in the 2020-2021 school year. Regent University, a private Christian university, had 10,386 students enrolled as of fall 2021. Virginia Peninsula, a public community college with two campuses, one in Hampton and the other in James City County, enrolled nearly 10,000 students during the 2020-2021 school year. Norfolk State University, a historically Black university, enrolled 5,457 students in 2020.
Tuesday’s round of bomb threats against local schools comes after Norfolk State University and Hampton University received threats that wound up being part of a national wave of threats against historically Black religious and academic institutions targeted earlier this year. A total of 57 schools and institutions received threats between Jan. 4 and Feb. 16. No explosive devices were found in connection to any of the threats made during this period, according to the FBI.
An FBI spokesperson said Tuesday the bureau was aware of the bomb threats “received by multiple colleges and universities” but declined to comment on how many colleges in the region received threats.
Staff writer Lauren Girgis contributed to this report.
Gavin Stone, gavin.stone@virginiamedia.com
