Yale’s Friday bomb threat may be connected to threats at other universities, NHPD says
At Tuesday press conference, NHPD details ongoing FBI investigation into bomb threat.
Lukas Flippo, Senior Photographer
Friday’s bomb threat at Yale may be connected to similar bomb threats that targeted several other universities over the weekend, New Haven Acting Police Chief Renee Dominguez said at a Tuesday morning press conference.
Dominguez said that Captain John Healy of the New Haven Police Department was notified over the weekend by Yale Police Department’s Lieutenant Brian Donnelly that the individual that targeted Yale with the bomb threat was “possibly related” to the similar bomb threats that multiple other universities experienced over the weekend. These universities include Princeton University, Stanford University, Miami University in Ohio, Ohio University, Cornell University, Columbia University and Brown University, according to Dominguez.
“We are working jointly with the Yale Police Department, along with the FBI, who has become involved, and providing any information we can to this larger investigation,” Dominguez said.
Columbia University, Cornell University and Brown University received threats on Sunday afternoon. Evacuated buildings at each university were cleared for re-entry the same day. Ohio University and Miami University received threats on Saturday, which were determined to be not credible. The News was not able to confirm Dominguez’s claims of threats at Princeton University and Stanford University.
“There is a lot of work that’s being done through the phone number that the individual called on,” Dominguez said. “And information that individual gave to the non-emergency number for us and then the other police departments that he called.” Despite that statement, Dominguez clarified at the press conference that there is not a known gender for the individual who called in the Yale threat.
Mayor Justin Elicker thanked the police for responding quickly to Friday’s bomb threat and expressed his appreciation to New Haven students, businesses and residents for being understanding during the evacuations.
“This is a huge impact on the city and I heard zero complaints from residents who were evacuated or inconvenienced, because I think people understand the reason why we take these threats very, very seriously,” Elicker said.
On Friday at approximately 1:55 p.m., the New Haven Police Department received a call to its non-emergency number reporting a bomb threat at eight locations around the university. The Yale Police Department eventually evacuated 10 locations for several hours before announcing that “there is no validity to the bomb threat made against Yale” and resuming campus operations.
YPD is located at 101 Ashmun St.