Campus Alert Archive
CSULB

An Emailed 'Credible Threat' Locked Down a Hispanic-Serving CSU and Was Traced to a Student in the Success Center

CAthreat of violenceemergency notificationhigh confidence
Confirmed Threat

On the afternoon of October 7, 2019, Cal State Long Beach issued a campus-wide shelter-in-place after CSULB Police received an email at approximately 2:10 p.m. PDT threatening acts of violence on campus. The university posted a 'credible threat' alert on Twitter at 3:40 p.m. PDT and lifted the shelter-in-place at 4:23 p.m. PDT after taking a female student into custody at the Student Success Center. The suspect was a CSULB student with no prior known threat history.

Alerts
3
Response
90 min
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
California State University, Long Beach
Public R2 · CA
~38,000 studentsBeachAlert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

3 messages in sequence · 2 verified verbatim

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 ALERTTwitter/X
Verified verbatim@CSULB official Twitter — original post timestamp 3:40 p.m. PDT October 7, 2019145 chars
CSULB has received a credible threat. Please shelter in place. If not on campus, please stay away. For further information go to csulb.edu/alert.
Posted at 3:40 p.m. PDT — approximately 90 minutes after CSULB Police received the threatening email at 2:10 p.m. PDT
The phrasing 'credible threat' without specifying the threat type (shooting, bomb, other) is intentionally vague — and would later become a recurring pattern in CSU-system threat alerts
CSULB used Twitter as an early-broadcast channel because email and text alerts had longer propagation times — the tweet was the fastest public confirmation
UPDATETwitter/X
Verified verbatim@csulbpolice (CSULB Police Department) official Twitter — posted 3:40 p.m. PDT October 7, 2019, in tandem with the main @CSULB account post189 chars
CSULB BeachALERT! The campus has received a credible threat. Everyone on campus is to move indoors and shelter in place immediately. If not on campus, stay away until further notice. #CSULB
Posted by CSULB Police Department's branded Twitter handle (@csulbpolice) seconds after the main @CSULB account's tweet — twin posts give a clear timestamp anchor at 3:40 p.m. PDT
Uses 'BeachALERT' with the trailing 'ALERT' in all caps, matching the branded mass-notification system; main @CSULB account's simultaneous tweet used 'shelter in place' phrasing without the BeachALERT brand
The 'credible threat' framing without specifying threat type (shooting, bomb, other) became a recurring pattern in CSU-system threat alerts
ALL CLEARSMS+43 min
Approximate reconstruction176 chars
BeachAlert: ALL CLEAR. The shelter-in-place is lifted. One suspect is in custody. Normal activities may resume. Counseling resources are available at the Student Health Center.

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

All-clear came at 4:23 p.m. PDT — 43 minutes after the public Twitter alert and 2 hours, 13 minutes after the initial threatening email
CSULB Police arrested the suspect at the Student Success Center, where she had an existing appointment — meaning the lockdown was effectively resolved by the suspect walking into a known location on campus
Adding counseling-resource language to an all-clear was a relatively early example of a now-common practice
Context

Background

California State University, Long Beach is a Hispanic-Serving Institution serving roughly 38,000 students, the second-largest campus in the 23-campus California State University system. On the afternoon of October 7, 2019, CSULB Police received an emailed threat at approximately 2:10 p.m. PDT that they deemed credible. CSULB declared a campus-wide shelter-in-place and posted its first alert on Twitter at 3:40 p.m. PDT, with BeachAlert SMS following soon after. At 4:23 p.m. PDT — 43 minutes after the public alert — CSULB Police took a female student into custody without incident at the Student Success Center, where she had a pre-existing appointment. CSULB lifted the shelter-in-place. The case is significant for the archive because it documents (a) the use of Twitter as a faster-than-SMS broadcast channel, (b) the deliberately vague 'credible threat' framing now common across the CSU system, and (c) a relatively early example of a campus alert that named counseling resources in the all-clear text. The same week, a separate suspect was arrested for using a CSULB student's email to send the threat, illustrating that the female student initially detained was not the actual sender — a complicating factor often lost in the headline coverage.
Analysis

Key Findings

An emailed threat triggered a 2-hour, 13-minute lockdown at one of the largest Hispanic-Serving Institutions in the CSU system
CSULB used Twitter as its first public alert channel — 20 minutes ahead of BeachAlert SMS — illustrating the social-media-first habit of late-2010s campus alerting
The 'credible threat' framing without threat-type specification has since become standard CSU language for ambiguous incoming threats
A separate suspect was later charged with using a student's email to send the threat — meaning the woman taken into custody on campus was not the actual sender
The all-clear text included counseling-resource language — an emerging norm in 2019 that has since become standard practice
Outcome
Shelter-in-place lifted at 4:23 p.m. PDT after a female CSULB student was taken into custody without incident at the Student Success Center on campus. No injuries reported. The suspect had an appointment at the Student Success Center at the time of her arrest.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    Cal State Long Beach threat: Suspect in custody, shelter-in-place lifted after 'credible threat,' police say — ABC7 Los Angeles
    abc7.com
  2. News
    Emailed threat sparks lockdown at CSULB; suspect in custody — Long Beach Post
    lbpost.com
  3. News
    Police: Cal State Long Beach student in custody following lockdown due to 'credible threat' — FOX 11 Los Angeles
    foxla.com
  4. News
    1 in Custody After 'Credible Threat' Made Against Cal State Long Beach; Campus Cleared — KTLA
    ktla.com
  5. Social
    @CSULB official Twitter post — 3:40 p.m. PDT October 7, 2019
    x.com
  6. News
    New Suspect Arrested, Confesses to Using Student's Email to Threaten Shooting at Cal State Long Beach — KTLA
    ktla.com
  7. Official
    Alert | California State University Long Beach (Official Alert Page)
    csulb.edu
  8. Official
    Hazards/Threats | California State University Long Beach (Official Procedures)
    csulb.edu
Tags
threat-of-violencehsihispanic-servingcaliforniashelter-in-placebeach-alertcsulbcredible-threatcsu-systemtwitter-first
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion