Campus Alert Archive
Alcorn State

Caller Claims Bomb in Backpack at Alcorn's Nursing School -- His Second HBCU Threat That Year

MSbomb threatemergency notificationmedium confidence
UnfoundedNo evidence of an actual threat was found. The institutional response is documented because the alert communication is identical to what would occur during a real incident.

On July 28, 2022, Alcorn State University's School of Nursing in Natchez was threatened when an anonymous caller using a spoofed number phoned the Adams County Sheriff's Office directly -- not 911 -- claiming to be standing outside the building with a bomb in a backpack. Alcorn advised students to shelter in place. The incident was part of the Mississippi July 2022 bomb threat wave that struck at least a dozen campuses the same morning. A suspect was identified within the week. Alcorn had already been targeted in the January-February 2022 HBCU bomb threat wave, making this its second threat of the year.

Alerts
2
Response
—
Killed
—
Injured
—
Institution
Alcorn State University
Hbcu · MS
~2,800 students
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTEmail
Approximate reconstruction338 chars
Alcorn State University Alert: The School of Nursing in Natchez has received a bomb threat. All students are advised to shelter in place. Faculty and staff should not report to the Natchez campus until further notice. Law enforcement including the Adams County Sheriff's Office and DHS are on scene and investigating. Updates will follow.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

The anonymous caller used a spoofed number to call the Adams County Sheriff's Office directly rather than 911 -- an unusual tactic that law enforcement cited as a deliberate attempt to complicate tracing
The caller claimed to be standing outside the School of Nursing building in Natchez with a bomb in a backpack, describing an immediately present threat rather than one planted in advance
Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten confirmed his deputies were working with the Department of Homeland Security to identify the caller
ALL CLEAREmail
Approximate reconstruction229 chars
Alcorn State University Alert: All clear. Law enforcement has swept the Natchez School of Nursing campus and determined the threat is not credible. No device was found. Regular operations may resume. The investigation is ongoing.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

All-clears were issued across all seven threatened Mississippi campuses by approximately 4 p.m. CDT on July 28, 2022
This was Alcorn State's second bomb threat of 2022 -- the university had also been targeted in the February 1, 2022 HBCU wave when an anonymous bomb threat forced a similar shelter-in-place
A Mississippi Department of Public Safety official confirmed within days that a suspect had been identified, though the name was not disclosed at that time
Context

Background

Alcorn State University, the oldest public HBCU in the United States (founded 1871), operates a School of Nursing in Natchez, Mississippi separate from its main Lorman campus. On July 28, 2022, this Natchez facility was among the twelve Mississippi institutions threatened in a single morning as part of the summer 2022 community-college and university bomb-threat wave. The Adams County Sheriff's Office received a call from a spoofed number in which the caller claimed to be standing outside the nursing building with a bomb in a backpack. Sheriff Travis Patten coordinated with the Department of Homeland Security to investigate. The bomb threat echoed the February 1, 2022 incident at Alcorn's main campus -- making Alcorn one of the few HBCUs to be targeted twice in a single year by separate threat waves, first by the racially motivated January-February HBCU campaign, and then by the ethnically distinct summer wave traced to callers in Ethiopia. Mississippi DPS Deputy Commissioner Keith Davis confirmed a suspect had been identified within the week but declined to name the individual pending further investigation.
Outcome
Shelter-in-place ordered; no evacuation confirmed. Adams County Sheriff and DHS investigated. No explosive found. A suspect was identified within the week. Campus returned to normal operations.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    State official says suspect identified in bomb threats last week (Natchez Democrat)
    natchezdemocrat.com
  2. News
    Official: Suspect identified in last week's bomb threats at Mississippi colleges and universities (Magnolia State Live)
    magnoliastatelive.com
  3. Source
    Suspect Identified in At Least 12 Bomb Threats Made Against Mississippi Colleges (Campus Safety Magazine)
    campussafetymagazine.com
  4. Official
    MSU among universities in two states impacted by bomb threats (Mississippi State University)
    msstate.edu
Tags
bomb-threathbcuspoofed-callernational-wavesummer-2022mississippinatcheznursing-schoolmulti-campus-wavesecond-threat-same-yearUnfounded
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion