{
  "id": "2022-04-21-uc-berkeley-staff-shooting-threat",
  "slug": "uc-berkeley-staff-shooting-threat-2022-04-21",
  "institution": {
    "name": "University of California, Berkeley",
    "shortName": "UC Berkeley",
    "state": "CA",
    "type": "public-r1",
    "alertSystemName": "WarnMe",
    "enrollment": 45700
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2022-04-21",
    "type": "workplace-violence",
    "cleryCategory": "emergency-notification",
    "resolution": "confirmed-threat",
    "headline": "A student's early-morning email threatens to shoot two staff members",
    "headlinePublic": "A student's early-morning email threatens to shoot two staff members",
    "summary": "Just before 6 AM on April 21, 2022, [UC Berkeley student Lamar Bursey sent an email to multiple staff members threatening to shoot two of them](https://www.berkeleyside.org/2022/04/27/uc-berkeley-lockdown-student-charged-shooting-threats), writing that '2 people on this email will get shot.' The threat prompted a campus-wide [shelter-in-place order that lasted several hours](https://news.berkeley.edu/2022/04/21/alert-shelter-in-place/) while UC Berkeley police searched for Bursey, who had been placed on academic suspension the week before.",
    "outcome": "Lamar Bursey, of Hayward, was located and arrested without incident at a hospital in Oakland around 2 PM the same day. He was charged with two counts of felony criminal threats.",
    "casualties": {
      "killed": 0,
      "injured": 0
    }
  },
  "alerts": [
    {
      "sequence": 1,
      "type": "initial",
      "timestamp": "2022-04-21T09:30:00-07:00",
      "channel": "multi-channel",
      "verbatimText": "UC Berkeley WarnMe: Shelter in place: go inside and move away from doors and windows.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://news.berkeley.edu/2022/04/21/alert-shelter-in-place/",
      "sourceDescription": "Berkeley News (UC Berkeley's official news site), reproducing the WarnMe shelter-in-place alert text",
      "annotations": [
        "UCPD issued the alert at 9:30 AM PDT after receiving Bursey's threatening email, which named two specific staff members and said he would be on campus that day between 9 AM and 4 PM",
        "The alert did not name the suspect or the threatened staff by name, consistent with the university's practice of withholding victim-identifying detail from a mass notification",
        "WarnMe was set to send follow-up updates roughly every 15 minutes as the search continued"
      ],
      "characterCount": 85
    },
    {
      "sequence": 2,
      "type": "all-clear",
      "timestampApprox": "Early afternoon, shortly after Bursey's arrest around 2 PM PDT on April 21, 2022",
      "channel": "multi-channel",
      "verbatimText": "UC Berkeley WarnMe: The shelter in place has been lifted. Please leave the campus in a safe and orderly way via the closest route available. UCPD has determined based upon its investigation that it is appropriate to end the shelter in place.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://news.berkeley.edu/2022/04/21/alert-shelter-in-place/",
      "sourceDescription": "Berkeley News, reproducing the WarnMe message lifting the shelter-in-place order",
      "annotations": [
        "Sent after UC Berkeley police located and arrested Bursey off-campus at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland",
        "Buildings remained locked and in-person classes and services stayed canceled for the rest of the day even after the shelter-in-place itself was lifted"
      ],
      "characterCount": 241
    },
    {
      "sequence": 3,
      "type": "follow-up",
      "timestampApprox": "Shortly after the shelter-in-place was lifted on the afternoon of April 21, 2022",
      "channel": "multi-channel",
      "verbatimText": "UC Berkeley WarnMe: ALL CLEAR - The situation has been resolved.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://news.berkeley.edu/2022/04/21/alert-shelter-in-place/",
      "sourceDescription": "Berkeley News, reproducing the final WarnMe all-clear message",
      "annotations": [
        "A short, separate all-clear message followed the shelter-in-place-lifted notice, formally closing out the multi-hour emergency"
      ],
      "characterCount": 64
    }
  ],
  "context": "UC Berkeley's WarnMe emergency notification system pushed the campus into a multi-hour shelter-in-place on April 21, 2022 after a member of the campus community made direct, specific threats to shoot staff. According to [Berkeleyside](https://www.berkeleyside.org/2022/04/27/uc-berkeley-lockdown-student-charged-shooting-threats), student Lamar Bursey, who had been placed on academic suspension the previous week, emailed multiple staff members just before 6 AM saying '2 people on this email will get shot' and that he had slept outside the day before and would be 'in the office' from 9 AM to 4 PM. [UCPD activated a shelter-in-place order at 9:30 AM](https://www.kqed.org/news/11911874/uc-berkeley-lifts-campus-wide-lockdown-after-police-apprehend-suspect-who-made-threats-of-violence), directing students, staff, and faculty to go inside, stay away from doors and windows, and await updates roughly every 15 minutes while Facilities Services locked buildings across campus. Police searched for Bursey for several hours before [locating and arresting him off-campus](https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/uc-berkeley-lockdown-student-charged-threatening-school-staffers/) at a hospital in Oakland around 2 PM without incident. Prosecutors charged Bursey with two counts of felony criminal threats. Because the threat named specific staff by their role rather than the wider student body, the incident is classified here as workplace violence: a targeted threat against particular employees carried out through a university email account and requiring the entire institution to shelter in place.",
  "keyFindings": [
    "The threat was directed at two named staff members by email, not the student body generally, making this an employee-targeted workplace-violence threat rather than a generalized campus threat",
    "UCPD's WarnMe alert withheld both the suspect's name and the threatened staffers' identities from the initial shelter-in-place message, publishing only the protective instruction",
    "The shelter-in-place lasted roughly five hours, from 9:30 AM until the suspect's arrest off-campus around 2 PM, with periodic WarnMe updates in between",
    "The suspect had been placed on academic suspension a week before sending the threatening email, a documented precipitating grievance"
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Campus shelter in place lifted (Berkeley News, UC Berkeley's official news site)",
      "url": "https://news.berkeley.edu/2022/04/21/alert-shelter-in-place/",
      "type": "official-archive"
    },
    {
      "title": "UCPD: Student's threats to shoot UC Berkeley staff led to lockdown (Berkeleyside)",
      "url": "https://www.berkeleyside.org/2022/04/27/uc-berkeley-lockdown-student-charged-shooting-threats",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Criminal Charges Filed Against UC Berkeley Student Whose Alleged Threats Prompted Campus Lockdown (KQED)",
      "url": "https://www.kqed.org/news/11911874/uc-berkeley-lifts-campus-wide-lockdown-after-police-apprehend-suspect-who-made-threats-of-violence",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "UC Berkeley student charged for threatening to shoot school staffers, prompting lockdown (CBS San Francisco)",
      "url": "https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/uc-berkeley-lockdown-student-charged-threatening-school-staffers/",
      "type": "local-media"
    }
  ],
  "confidence": "high",
  "tags": [
    "workplace-violence",
    "uc-berkeley",
    "california",
    "warnme",
    "shelter-in-place",
    "targeted-threat",
    "staff-targeted",
    "public-r1"
  ],
  "dateAdded": "2026-07-20",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-07-20",
  "addedBy": "ingestion"
}