Police: No threat found at CSUMB, subject carrying umbrella

An alert was sent to CSUMB students just after 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, warning them of a suspicious person, possibly armed, on campus.

After viewing surveillance video and speaking with the reporting party, police found the subject – and found him with an item not unusual for a rain day.

“We are able to capture, relatively early, the subject walking in a building with what appeared to be
an umbrella in their hand. We verified with the original reporting party that was the person they saw,” CSU Monterey Bay Police Chief, Earl Lawson, said.

Law enforcement swarmed to the scene for a false alarm. But in the wake of recent tragedy on school grounds, no one is taking any chances.

“Any time that we get a phone call to the police department that there’s a potential safety concern on campus, that’s how we’re going to respond,” CSUMB PIO, Noah Rappahahn, said.

This incident happened five days after the cover of student newspaper, The Lutrinae, has their cover story of Chief Lawson addressing safety on campus.

“(Everyone is) ultra diligent right now. Our campus is always trained and prepared for that worst-care scenario, and I think our community is also a bit diligent,” Lawson said.

Students that spoke with KION said they were worried when the alert first when out. “(I was) Keeping my colleagues calm, myself calm. And (figuring out what) we do need to be safe, what are we going to do,” CSUMB student, Stephanie Iriarte, said. Student, Marijeanne Santina, said “(It is) kind of scary to realize that your school could be another place where a tragedy like that could happen.”

The video put up by CSUMB has been watched on YouTube more than 155,000 times. Chief Lawson says they show it at student and new employee orientations

UPDATE: 3/13/2018 11:38 a.m. Police responded to a call about a suspicious man possibly carrying a gun at CSUMB and later discovered the “gun” was actually an umbrella.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/CSUMB/status/973628400857374720″,”author_name”:”Cal State Monterey Bay”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/CSUMB”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;4/4 UPD has made contact with the subject and confirmed NO threat to campus. Subject was carrying an umbrella. Thank you @CSUMB_UPD for your diligent response to this incident.&#lt;/p&#gt;– Cal State Monterey Bay (@CSUMB) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/CSUMB/status/973628400857374720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;March 13, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}

PREVIOUS STORY:

CSUMB Police is investigating a suspicious person with a possible weapon on campus.

An alert was sent out to students around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday informing them that Campus University Police Department is responding to Divarty Street in search of a suspicious man.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/CSUMB/status/973615399819345920″,”author_name”:”Cal State Monterey Bay”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/CSUMB”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;1/3 The &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/CSUMB_PD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@CSUMB_PD&#lt;/a&#gt; is currently responding to a report of a suspicious person on campus with a possible weapon at his side. This person has not yet been located. UPD is actively searching for the subject.&#lt;/p&#gt;– Cal State Monterey Bay (@CSUMB) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/CSUMB/status/973615399819345920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;March 13, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}

Police described the suspicious person as a white man, 5 foot 4 inches tall with straight hair, thin build wearing dark clothing.

“Subject has a backpack and may have a weapon held at their side,” said CSUMB PD.

A shelter in place has not been issued.

An officer told KION that they are currently reviewing all campus surveillance video. It’s unclear if there is an actual threat but the department is treating it as such.

This is a developing story, check back for updates.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/CSUMB/status/973615400851333125″,”author_name”:”Cal State Monterey Bay”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/CSUMB”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;2/3 The subject is described as a white male, 5 ft 4 inches with straight hair and a slim build. Subject is wearing dark clothing, wearing a backpack and may have a weapon at his side. All suspicious activity should be reported to 911.&#lt;/p&#gt;– Cal State Monterey Bay (@CSUMB) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/CSUMB/status/973615400851333125?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;March 13, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}