Wording not preserved
A initial alert message is documented at this point in the sequence, but its exact wording is not preserved in the public record. The public edition displays only confirmed alert text.
CSUF
Robbery suspects flee onto campus after a pursuit crash; eight-hour lockdown follows
AI-generated · every claim is source-linkedConfirmed Threat
At approximately 3:50 PM PST on Wednesday, December 12, 2012, a high-speed pursuit of five armed robbery suspects ended when their getaway car crashed into a student's vehicle at Nutwood Avenue and Folino Drive on the edge of the Cal State Fullerton campus. The pursuit began after a robbery at Empire Jewelry Pawn Shop in Moreno Valley, in which the clerk was shot four times. As they fled on foot across campus, CSUF police initiated an eight-hour lockdown with helicopter floodlights, SWAT teams, and K-9 units searching the campus building-by-building during the height of finals week.
- Alerts
- 3
- Response
- 10 min
- Killed
- —
- Injured
- —
~38,000 studentsTitan Alert
Official alert policy
Read when and how CSUF says it will use Titan Alert: summarized, quoted, and analyzed.
Documented Timeline
Alert Sequence
3 messages in sequence · 1 verified verbatim
Some messages in this sequence are documented (their existence, timing, and channel are sourced) but their exact wording is not preserved in the public record. Those entries appear as placeholders; only confirmed text is displayed.
Verified verbatimOfficial message posted on the CSUF website during the lockdown, quoted in full by ABC News160 chars
CSUF students and employees: If you are inside a university building, we remain on lock-down. Shelter in place. If you are outside, evacuate campus immediately.
Posted on the university's website while SWAT and K-9 units conducted building-by-building searches; ABC News quoted the posting in full
The split instruction is unusual: shelter in place if inside, but evacuate campus entirely if outside
The hyphenated spelling 'lock-down' is preserved from the original posting
Wording not preserved
A all clear message is documented at this point in the sequence, but its exact wording is not preserved in the public record. The public edition displays only confirmed alert text.
Context
Background
California State University, Fullerton enrolls approximately 38,000 students on its 236-acre Fullerton campus in northern Orange County. On the afternoon of December 12, 2012 (during finals week) five suspects in a robbery at Empire Jewelry Pawn Shop in Moreno Valley, in which the clerk was shot four times, led police on a high-speed pursuit through Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, and Orange counties. The chase ended at approximately 3:50 PM PST when the getaway car crashed into a student's vehicle at Nutwood Avenue and Folino Drive, on the edge of the CSUF campus. The suspects fled on foot, prompting CSUF police to issue Titan Alert lockdown notifications that locked down the entire campus for approximately 8 hours. Two suspects, Damine Banks and Jerome Allen, were apprehended near campus during the search; a third, Traevon Vidaud, was caught later. Additional suspects were arrested over the following days, and a fifth suspect was never publicly identified. The incident is notable both for the scale of the response (SWAT, K-9, helicopter floodlights) and for occurring during finals week, when thousands of students were trapped mid-exam.
Analysis
Key Findings
An eight-hour lockdown during final-exam week affected thousands of students, many of them mid-exam
When the lockdown was lifted, two suspects were in custody while others remained at large but were not believed to be on campus
The incident demonstrated Titan Alert's capacity to sustain multi-hour shelter-in-place communications with periodic updates
The campus borders Nutwood Avenue, a public arterial along which the pursuit reached the campus edge
Outcome
Two suspects, Damine Banks and Jerome Allen, were arrested in the campus area during the lockdown; additional suspects were arrested over the following days. The pawn shop clerk survived. No injuries on campus. The lockdown was lifted after approximately 8 hours, and classes resumed Thursday, December 13.
Provenance
Sources
- Student Paper
- national media
- News
- News
- Source
Cite this case
Campus Alert Archive. "California State University, Fullerton: Robbery suspects flee onto campus after a pursuit crash; eight-hour lockdown follows." Incident of December 12, 2012. Added May 2026; last updated June 2026. https://campusalertarchive.com/case/cal-state-fullerton-pawn-shop-manhunt-lockdown-2012-12-12/
Alert text quoted on this page remains the work of the issuing institution; the archive is a secondary source.
Tags
lockdownpolice-activitymanhuntarmed-suspectscaliforniacsucal-state-fullertontitan-alertfinals-weekpursuit
Added May 2026Updated June 2026Via ingestion