Global Courant
A 29-year-old man was arrested Saturday in Northern California after making a series of shooting, death and bomb threats against Laguna Hills High School over the past six months, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said.
Eugene Thomas Jenkins of San Rafael was incarcerated at the Orange County Jail on suspicion of multiple felonies, including making criminal threats, falsely reporting a bomb, falsely reporting an emergency, and threatening a public official.
The threats against the school’s staff and students began in December after a football game, the department said in a press release.
In the following months, the school received three reports of a gunman approaching the campus and a false threat about a bomb.
At least once the school received death threats by telephone.
In addition, at least 10 death threats were sent in letters through the United States Postal Service, the Sheriff’s Department said. The department did not say where the letters were sent.
At least two of the threats targeted Laguna Hills High School’s graduation on Thursday, the sheriff’s department said.
Extra security was placed at the graduation ceremony, which went without incident.
In the days leading up to the ceremony, the Sheriff’s Department coordinated with law enforcement agencies from across the state, including the FBI, the San Rafael Police Department, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Bay Area Transit Police to monitor locations controlled by the suspect.
Jenkins was found and arrested in San Rafael.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department declined to say how Jenkins was identified as a suspect and whether he was charged with threatening other locations.
He is due to appear in court in Orange County on Tuesday.
