No threat to Cal State Long Beach after shooting message found in campus bathroom

Authorities investigated a threat to the Cal State Long Beach campus on Wednesday but found the threat to be not credible.

May 8, 2019 10:56 PM PT

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Authorities said there was no threat to Cal State Long Beach on Thursday after graffiti found the day before in a bathroom seemed to imply a school shooting would take place.

A Twitter user posted a photograph of the threatening message, scrawled in black ink inside a restroom stall: “School shooter tm BE WARNED 5-9.” Late Wednesday night, the university’s president, Jane Close Conoley, said that the threat was not credible and that other institutions had found similar graffiti.

“At this time, we have no information that leads us to believe this is a credible threat, and the campus is open,” university spokeswoman Lauren Williams said Thursday morning.

The Cal State Long Beach Police Department and the Long Beach Police Department will both be increasing their presence on the campus Thursday, university officials said.

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Jaclyn Cosgrove

Jaclyn Cosgrove covers the (great!) outdoors at the Los Angeles Times. They started at The Times in 2017 and have written about wildfires, culture, protests, crime and county government. In 2022, they managed For Your Mind, a yearlong mental health project. Cosgrove is originally from rural Oklahoma and is a proud Oklahoma State University graduate. They fell in love with the Southern California landscape when they moved here in 2017. They are always looking for the next adventure and welcome your ideas. If their phone goes straight to voicemail when you call, it probably means they’re in the mountains with their beloved dog, Maggie May.

Alejandra Reyes-Velarde

Alejandra Reyes-Velarde is a Metro reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Previously she wrote for the San Francisco Business Times and the Sacramento Bee. A UCLA graduate, she is originally from Duarte, Calif., and is a native Spanish speaker.