Updated at 5:45 p.m. on Dec. 7
State College Police said Wednesday afternoon that they are still investigating the identity of a man who allegedly made a bomb threat and threatened police officers late Tuesday night.
At about 11 p.m. on Tuesday, Centre County 911 received a call from an individual who said there was a bomb in the area of Schlow Library. He called back several times to 911 and the police non-emergency line making similar threats and stating that he had a gun.
Capt. Matthew Wilson said the caller told police that he could see police setting up a perimeter around Schlow and threatened to shoot police officers.
‘That being the case we out of an abundance of caution secured the area for residents and for ourselves,’ Wilson said.
Police closed off Beaver Avenue and South Allen Street to pedestrian and vehicle traffic to investigate. State College Police were joined by Penn State, Ferguson Township, Patton Township, Bellefonte and Spring Township police departments. The Penn State-State College Bomb Team and a Pennsylvania State Police K-9 unit also responded.
‘We don’t know what we’re dealing with when we get these situations,’ Wilson said. ‘We take everything extremely seriously for the residents, for our community and for the officers that were involved given the specific threat that was made. When he described what we’re doing, we have evidence he is in the vicinity. We’re certainly going to take that seriously. We want to make sure we have done everything we can to make sure it is as safe as can be for the residents who would be in that library today.
After an investigation of the library and surrounding area, the scene was deemed safe at about 3:30 a.m. and roads re-opened. Schlow opened for normal business hours on Wednesday.
‘We did a very careful search of the area to make sure things were safe,’ Wilson said. ‘Ultimately this individual stopped calling us and we did not find anything suspicious. We did not find anything that could possibly be a bomb in the vicinity of Schlow Library or inside.’
The identity of the caller remains under investigation, and anyone with information is asked to contact State College Police at (814) 234-7150, by email or by submitting an anonymous tip through the department’s website.
‘We’re looking into the identity of the caller and once we are able to identify the caller we can look into how credible that threat was or wasn’t based on what we find out,’ Wilson said.
Because the incident occurred late night Tuesday into early morning Wednesday, Wilson said there were not many drivers or pedestrians out. Police contacted Local Whiskey and The Phyrst to inform management that Beaver Avenue was being blocked off and patrons were let out through the back entrances of the bars.
