HBCU bomb threat caller in Florida described elaborate plot involving bombs in duffle bags

ATLANTA — A caller who threatened to blow up a historically Black university in Florida — one of numerous threats made against schools across the nation — described an elaborate plot involving seven bombs hidden in duffel bags and backpacks around the school’s perimeter, a Florida police chief said.

In a 20-minute phone call, the caller said the bombs containing C-4 explosives would be detonated at Bethune-Cookman University on Monday, Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said at a news conference. The caller also said a gunman would open fire on the campus around lunchtime the same day, Young said.

The caller claimed to be affiliated with the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division. In May, a judge in Virginia sentenced the group’s former leader to more than three years in prison for his role in a conspiracy theory to make bogus bomb threats and 911 calls to over 100 targets, including a Black church.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Nearly two dozen historically Black universities, including Spelman College, Fort Valley State University and Albany State University in Georgia, received bomb threats Monday and Tuesday. Many of the schools locked down their campuses for a time. Authorities found no bombs after extensive searches.

The threats to some of the other schools also were telephoned in, school officials have said, but few details of those calls have been released.

TRENDING STORIES:

• Woman, unborn child killed after drunk driver crashed into them, fiancé says
• Local teen’s delay in standardized test results may affect scholarship chances
• Parents concerned after violence inside metro Atlanta schools on the rise

Investigators have identified at least five “persons of interest,” a law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The investigators believe a spoofed phone number was used to make the threats, the official said.

The official could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. ABC News was first to report the development.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

Both the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced investigations. The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces is investigating the threats as hate crimes, the agency said in a statement Wednesday.

“This investigation is of the highest priority for the Bureau and involves more than 20 FBI field offices across the country,” the agency said. “These threats are being investigated as Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism and hate crimes.”

The bomb scares come at the start of Black History Month, and less than a month after a series of bomb threats were made to multiple historically Black universities on Jan. 4.

©2022 Cox Media Group