Tuesday morning was a stressful day for six institutions located in southeastern Virginia’s Hampton Roads region, as a number of unsubstantiated bomb threats came pouring in.
The impacted institutions include Norfolk State University, Tidewater Community College, Regent University, Virginia Peninsula Community College, Paul D. Camp Community College and Eastern Shore Community College.
The calls came in between the late morning and early afternoon on Tuesday. According to WTKR, the institutions all went into lockdown, and because no explosives were found at any of the schools, many resumed normal operations later that same day.
“In reference to the bomb threat that Norfolk State University received, several law enforcement agencies responded along with bomb detection dogs, who conducted a search and yielded negative results. An all clear has been issued and all staff and students can resume normal operations and activities,” Norfolk State University officials wrote in an alert, per 13 News Now.
— ES Community College (@ESCCtweet) July 12, 2022
Local authorities are actively investigating the situation.
In a statement to 13 News Now, retired law enforcement officer Kenny Miller speculated on how the responding agencies are handling the threats.
“This is probably an all-hands-on-deck. We won’t see it from a public perspective because there’s so much behind-the-scenes work going on right now,” Miller noted.
Miller went on to also condemn the perpetrators for their threats.
“Why do such a thing when our country is going through so much right now,” he pondered.
“They think that they’re winning. They’re not. Yes, it causes disruption. Yes, it causes fear. Yes, it causes slowdown. But it doesn’t cause a stop,” Miller continued.
People with any information on these recent threats are encouraged to contact 1-888-LOCK-U-UP, a crime line that’s based in the Hampton Roads region.
