LSU buildings to open as cleared after threat; campus sweep, investigation ongoing - @NOLAnews

Baton Rouge -- Most of LSU remains closed as police continue to search for suspicious items on campus in the wake of a Monday morning bomb threat, said LSU Police Department Cpt. Cory Lalonde at an impromptu press conference at Walk-Ons, near campus.

Jim Kleinpeter / The Times-PicayuneCars back up as students and faculty try to leave LSU's Baton Rouge campus.

LSU assistant vice chancellor Herb Vincent said the residential halls are the priority and will be cleared first.

"Some students have been allowed into Evangeline Hall, the first dorm to be cleared, for the purpose of putting people who didn't have anywhere to go or had no transportation, or bussed off campus," Vincent said.

Vincent said LSU notified students and faculty of the threat through all possible means.

"We have the emergency text message system that has been very effective during hurricanes and such," Vincent said. "We have a phone voice mail messaging system that goes to every phone on campus. Traditional media and social media. It appeared to work because people began moving immediately."

LSU students and faculty received a mass text message and email at about 11:30 a.m., asking all on campus to evacuate "calmly and quickly."  

Lalonde said he couldn't speak to the details of the phone call that prompted the evacuation of campus because the case is still considered "an ongoing criminal investigation."

"Upon receiving that information the administration of LSU made the decision to evacuate campus," Lalonde said. "Once that decision was made, LSU police and surrounding law enforcement agencies assisted in getting the traffic flow off campus as quickly as possible."

Lalonde said buildings on campus will be opened on a "one by one" basis as they are deemed safe and ready to return to normal operation.

"LSU police are being assisted in this operation by Baton Rouge Police, the East Baton Rouge sheriff's office, the Louisiana state police as well as personnel from the FBI," Lalonde said.

When asked if the LSU bomb threat could have any relation to threats made last week that led to evacuations at the University of Texas at Austin, North Dakota State University in Fargo, N.D., and Hiram College in Ohio, Lalonde said it would premature to assume a correlation but that LSU has reached out to other police agencies for information.

Louisiana State Police Col. Mike Edmonson said besides ensuring the safety of all those on campus, the main goal is to track down whoever is responsible for the threat.

"We certainly will be doing everything we can to make sure the responsible person for today's phone call is arrested," Edmonson said.