A month after Morgan State University received a bogus threat that there was “a potential explosive device” in its library, no suspects have been identified, according to a spokesperson for the school.
This is a typical scenario for such cases.
Most university threat cases either never get solved or take as long as a couple of years to get solved, said Brian Higgins, a public safety consultant and lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.
“In today’s world, [with] the technology, it’s much more difficult to track that down,” Higgins said.
Between masking IP addresses and leasing servers in other countries, technological advancements have made it possible for people to hide their identities and locations when making threats via phone, social media or email.
The bogus threat made against Morgan State was one of five made to universities across Maryland in September. Other schools that received threats were the University of Maryland, College Park, Towson University and the U.S. Naval Academy.
Charges have been filed in the Naval Academy case, but no others.
According to Campus Safety Magazine, as of Sept. 12, 45 U.S. colleges had reported receiving hoax threats this school year. Following the killing of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10, historically Black colleges and universities across the country, including Morgan State, saw a wave of these threats.
Higgins, who also served as a police chief in New Jersey, has noticed a surge of non-credible threats made to colleges this school year.
“The fact that we had so many in that short period of time is unusual,” he said.
Forty-five calls to campuses in the span of about a month would appear to be a spike, considering that there were 361 hoax device incidents reported throughout the U.S. in 2024, according to the 2024 U.S. Bomb Data Center Explosives Incident Report. In 2023, 362 incidents were reported. In 2022, there were 314, and in 2021, there were 377.
The threats
On Sept. 2, the University of Maryland Police Department issued an advisory that the school had received a false report of an active shooter in its McKeldin Library area.
Lt. Rosanne Hoaas, a spokesperson for the department, said the case remains active and the FBI is involved.
On Sept. 12, Morgan State said it received a phone threat, which was deemed not credible. The threat was among several received by HBCUs following Kirk’s death two days earlier.
In an email, a spokesperson for Morgan State said no suspects have been identified and no arrests have been made in its investigations into either of the threats made against the university in September. The spokesperson said university police are working closely with the FBI to investigate both threats.
On Sept. 30 — the same day Morgan State said it received a threat of an explosive device in its library — Towson University said it received a bomb threat against its University Union. Mark Ginsberg, the university’s president, said in a letter that university police, as well as Baltimore County Police and fire departments, conducted a sweep of the student union and the threat was deemed not credible.
Jamie Abell, a spokesperson for Towson University, said in an email last week that federal agencies were investigating the case. She provided no further updates.
The FBI’s Baltimore office did not respond to questions about the campus investigations.
But an investigation into threats at the Naval Academy resulted in an arrest and charges.
On Sept. 11, the Naval Academy went into lockdown following a confrontation that unfolded amid a storm of false rumors that a midshipman who had been dismissed from the academy was stalking the campus in a law enforcement uniform. According to an academy official, a midshipman mistakenly believed a law enforcement agent was the assailant in disguise, clubbed him with a parade rifle and was shot in the shoulder.
One day later, former midshipman Jackson Elliot Fleming, 23, was charged with one count of transmitting a threat across state lines. Federal prosecutors believe Fleming threatened “mass execution” of his peers on Sept. 11, causing the misinformation and shots fired that day.
Fleming has a trial scheduled for Dec. 22 in the U.S. District Court. His lawyer, Jonathan Bedi, has said they plan to fight the charges.
“Jack is a young man with his entire future ahead of him,” Bedi wrote in a statement in September. “He recently graduated from college and is planning to attend law school. We intend to fight these charges in court vigorously. No one, including Jack, should be judged by a mere accusation from the government. We are prepared to mount the strongest possible defense, and I am confident that when the complete facts emerge, Jack will be vindicated.”
Higgins called the Naval Academy’s quick investigation “an aberration.” He said that, as part of the U.S. Department of Defense, the Naval Academy “probably has some better tools” when it comes to solving these cases.
Investigating the threats
Higgins said that some non-credible threats are easier to trace to their origin than others. He said law enforcement has gotten good at tracking the IP addresses and locations of those who mask their phone numbers when they call in a threat.
But, he said in the “more sophisticated” cases, people will mask their IP addresses or lease a server in another country.
“It becomes difficult to track those people down,” Higgins said. “But that’s where it really begins. It begins with the origination of this call or email.”
Investigators will also look for potential suspects, Higgins said.
“There’s this other type of investigation that has to do with who would have an issue with the college,” he said. “Why would somebody do this?”
Higgins said investigators will monitor messaging online and look for any references to the attack.
“Now you’ve got a thread to pull,” he said about finding those references.
In some cases, the person or group who made the threat will brag or taunt the police “because they think they’ll never get caught,” Higgins said, which can end up helping investigators solve the case.
Nonetheless, Higgins said these cases are “very difficult to track.” He said that in cases where the person making the threat is more experienced in doing so, it can take years for investigators to solve the case, if the case gets solved at all.
Higgins said the “more sophisticated” one-off hoax threats are the ones that are more likely to “peter off” and fall through the cracks, not getting solved.
The FBI will get involved when the case exceeds state jurisdictions, Higgins said, adding that when local law enforcement can’t identify the source of the threat, it is often assumed that the threat came from outside the state.
“And then you can bring the FBI on,” he said. “And they have different tools.”
When it comes to the motive behind the threats, Higgins said the threats are often made by “tech-savvy” people who have grievances with the institution or by people or groups providing a service to someone who has grievances with the institution.
“And then there is that percentage — I don’t know if it’s big or large — that just enjoys seeing this,” he said. “And how they fell in that place, we’ll never know. Did they visit the campus? Did they attend a few classes and were like, ‘Ah, this is a good place to do this’?”
Have a news tip? Contact Maggie Trovato at mtrovato@baltsun.com, 443-890-0601 or on X @MaggieTrovato.
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