Campus Alert Archive
MC

An Emailed Threat From a Former Student Closes Every Campus

MDthreat of violenceemergency notificationhigh confidence
Confirmed Threat

Montgomery College declared a Code Red and closed all of its campuses on the afternoon of Friday, October 11, 2024, after receiving emailed threats from a former student who allegedly threatened to 'shoot up' the school. Bethesda Magazine reported the college suspended all in-person and remote instruction and operations while police searched for the suspect. WUSA9 reported normal operations resumed Saturday.

Alerts
1
Response
—
Killed
—
Injured
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Institution
Montgomery College
Community College · MD
~47,000 studentsMC Alert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

1 message in sequence · 1 verified verbatim

INITIAL ALERTTwitter/X
Verified verbatim@montgomerycoll (Montgomery College) official X post — status 1844792537745117520 on October 11, 2024224 chars
MC Alert: URGENT - Code Red Effective at 1:30 p.m., Friday, October 11, @montgomerycoll will be CLOSED onsite and all remote operations/instructions/services are suspended. Please check your MC email for further information.
Verbatim MC Alert from the official @montgomerycoll X account declaring a Code Red effective 1:30 p.m. EDT on Friday, October 11, 2024.
The threat was delivered by email from a named former student rather than through a 911 call or social-media post, an unusual vector among campus-alert triggers.
Suspending remote operations as well as in-person classes signals the college treated the threat as targeting the institution broadly, not a single building.
Context

Background

Montgomery College, a three-campus community college in Maryland, uses the MC Alert system for emergency notifications. On the afternoon of October 11, 2024, the college issued a Code Red and closed all campuses after receiving emailed threats from a former student, according to Bethesda Magazine. Police sought 25-year-old Yonas Alemseged Harris, who allegedly threatened to 'shoot up' the school. The college suspended all in-person and remote instruction and operations, and WUSA9 reported that a normal schedule resumed the next day, Saturday, October 12, 2024. The episode came roughly two months after a separate August 2024 off-campus-shooting lockdown at the Rockville campus, underscoring how often this suburban Maryland college activates MC Alert.
Analysis

Key Findings

An emailed threat from a named former student, not an anonymous call, prompted a system-wide Code Red closing every campus
MC suspended remote as well as in-person operations, treating the threat as institution-wide rather than building-specific
The verbatim alert is reconstructed from news coverage because no archived copy of the closure notice was located
Outcome
All campuses and operations were suspended Friday afternoon while police searched for 25-year-old Yonas Alemseged Harris. Operations resumed on a normal schedule Saturday, October 12, 2024.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    Montgomery College closes all campuses after receiving threats - Bethesda Magazine
    bethesdamagazine.com
  2. News
    Montgomery College resumes normal schedule Saturday after threat from former student - WUSA9
    wusa9.com
  3. Official
    MC Alert - Montgomery College
    montgomerycollege.edu
Tags
threat-of-violenceemergency-notificationmarylandcommunity-collegecampus-closuremontgomery-college
Added May 2026Updated June 2026Via ingestion