‘Hate speech’ accompanied bomb threat toward Davis library, Yolo sheriff’s officials say
Authorities on Monday afternoon evacuated a Yolo County library and a nearby elementary school in Davis after police officials were notified of a bomb threat, which sheriff’s officials said came in an email that also contained “some form of hate speech.”
The threat, which was sent in an email shortly after 2 p.m., was targeting Mary L. Stephens Davis Library on East 14th Street, said Lt. Dan Beckwith, a Davis Police Department spokesman. He said authorities had evacuated the library and the surrounding area as law enforcement investigated the threat to determine whether it was credible.
About 5:30 p.m., the Police Department announced that Yolo County sheriff’s officials searched the library and the surrounding area, which have been “deemed clear.” Police said the area is now open to traffic.
Beckwith said the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office took over command of the incident because the library is a county building.
Lt. Juan Ceja, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office, said authorities were notified by a local TV news station regarding an email from an unknown source that made a threat to the Mary L. Stephens Library in Davis.
“The email made a threat to detonate a bomb and included some form of hate speech,” Ceja said in an email to The Sacramento Bee. “There is currently minimal information, and the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office detectives will be conducting a thorough investigation.”
Ceja said Davis police evacuated about 10 county employees; two adjacent buildings also were evacuated “in an abundance of caution.”
He said the Yolo County Regional Bomb Squad and Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office K-9 units were called to the scene and searched the area, but did not find any suspicious items.
The reported threat came one day after an incident at the library in which dozens of people, including protesters, attended a forum on “Fair and Safe Sports for Girls” hosted by the Yolo County chapter of Moms for Liberty. A dispute unfolded after a library official told a speaker at the event to leave the library after the speaker referred to transgender female youth athletes as “biological males.”
Video footage of the incident was circulating Monday on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, where one version of the clip had tallied more than 1 million views by midday.
Sheriff’s officials on Monday did not further specify the nature of the hate speech included in the email. The alleged threat remains under investigation, authorities said.
Davis Joint Unified School District around 2:45 p.m. Monday announced in a social media post that authorities had evacuated North Davis Elementary School due to an incident at the library, which is just west of the school.
Classes at North Davis Elementary were not in session Monday; Davis Joint Unified students are scheduled to return from summer break Tuesday.
All Davis Joint Unified School District campuses will be open Tuesday for the first day of school, police said in the update clearing the library and nearby areas.
