On Wednesday, seven predominately Black schools, including Dunbar High School, where U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband, Douglas Emhoff was attending a Black History Month event, received bomb threats.
More than a half-dozen public high schools in Washington, D.C., were evacuated Wednesday afternoon after receiving anonymous bomb threats. In each case, police found no explosives.
According to NBC News, a 16-year-old had been arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department and charged with making terroristic threats. A second 16-year-old boy from Northwest D.C. was charged with making terroristic threats related to Wednesday’s bomb threat at KIPP DC College Preparatory.
In a statement Thursday, the Metropolitan Police Department announced that the 16-year-old had been arrested. The agency said it continued to investigate the bomb threats with federal partners.
On Wednesday, police said at least eight schools had received threats, including four public high schools and four charter schools. At least some of the schools had to be evacuated, police said.
According to the most recent data published on the D.C. School Report Card’s website, at least seven of the eight schools targeted have a predominantly Black student population.
This is on the heels of 17 HBCUs receiving bomb threats over the past month. Spellman College received their third bomb threat this year when D.C. high schools did on Wednesday. The FBI has stated they have identified six people of interest in connection with the threats.
Lawmakers around the country have called on the Department of Justice for more information given how targeted these acts of terror are.
“For the last month, at least 17 of the nation’s 100 HBCUs have been forced to repeatedly lock down their campuses and shelter in place until law enforcement can investigate and assure the safety of students, staff, and the surrounding local communities,” the lawmakers wrote.
The Metropolitan Police Department are working together with the FBI to see if these threats are connected in any way.
“This is preliminary. So I can’t say with any certainty it’s not related to recent threats with the historically black colleges, but our partners at the FBI Washington Field Office will work with us to kind of decipher what we have here and make those links - if any. But at this time, it doesn’t appear to be related,” MPD Executive Assistant Chief of Police Ashan Benedict said.