Terror threat: NY police, Bill de Blasio says LA school closings was ‘overreaction’
Better safe than sorry may have been the message in California as schools in Los Angeles shut down due to a terrorist threat. New York officials, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, claim they received a similar threat and this was a hoax.
The New York City schools were among many districts around the country to receive an email terror threat Tuesday, but police have determined it not to be credible and are investigating it as a hoax, city officials said.
All schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District were ordered closed Tuesday due to the threat. NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said the email received in New York was similar to the one received in Los Angeles.
“We do believe, a preliminary investigation, that this is in fact a hoax and we will investigate it as such,” Bratton said.
Bratton then said that the school system in Los Angeles shut down schools without consulting with the Los Angeles Police Department. Bratton called the move a “significant overreaction.”
“We cannot allow ourselves to raise levels of fear,” he said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters that he was “absolutely convinced” there was no danger to schoolchildren in his city, saying there was “nothing credible about the threat.”
donkeyhotey [email protected]
“Based on the information that we have, this was a very generic piece of writing sent to a number of different places simultaneously and also written in a fashion that suggests that it’s not plausible, and we’ve come to the conclusion that we must continue to keep our school system open,” de Blasio said. “In fact, it’s very important not to overreact in situations like this.”
Bratton said a New York superintendent received the threat early Tuesday morning, stating that the communication came from Frankfurt, Germany.
The threatening email warned that every school in the city would be attacked with pressure cooker bombs, nerve gas agents, machine pistols and machine guns.
The email said the writer and “138 comrades” would carry out the attack. It said, “The students at every school in the New York City school district will be massacred, mercilessly. And there is nothing you can do to stop it.”
The anonymous writer claimed to be a student at a district high school who had been bullied.
