Homes Evacuated After Alleged School Threat

Oxnard police evacuated 200 people from their homes and arrested an 18-year-old Hueneme High School student Thursday after receiving an informant’s tip that the teen had threatened to blow up the school, authorities said. Officers said up to 10 pipe bombs were found in his house.

Earlier, in a 3 a.m. raid in Newbury Park, sheriff’s deputies and FBI agents swooped down on the home of a 15-year old Newbury Park High student after learning he had allegedly posted a hit list of students and faculty members he threatened to kill.

The two incidents--and the speed and and scope of the law enforcement response--underscored the seriousness that authorities are showing as the threats continue locally following the massacre in Littleton, Colo., last week.

“We want to spread the word that we are taking this very seriously,” said Dave Nesbitt, spokesman for the Ventura office of the FBI. “So the next student who might be thinking this is a cool way to get out of class, maybe he’ll remember the last guy who did this went to prison. And if they don’t like school, they certainly aren’t going to like prison.”

In the Oxnard case, police said they arrested Jose Carlos Herrera on suspicion of possessing explosives. He remained in Ventura County Jail Thursday night in lieu of $600,000 bail.

A classmate told police he had overheard Herrera talking about his plan to bomb the school, said Oxnard Det. Robert Vizcarra, who is stationed full time at Hueneme High.

“[The informant] said he heard him say that he owns guns, knows how to make bombs, that he has bombs that he has made and that he mentioned doing what occurred in Littleton--blowing up the school,” Vizcarra said.

School officials said a group of three or four girls also came forward to say they were aware that Herrera made bombs at home.

Herrera denied making any threats and has claimed repeatedly to officers he was only interested in making bombs because he hoped to someday join the Army as a demolition expert, authorities said. He has not been accused of making threats.

“We talked to him and he said he was just curious about bombs,” said Oxnard Police Sgt. Lee Wilcox of the department’s major crimes division.

Herrera allegedly built the pipe bombs with his parents’ consent. Only recently, after the Littleton incident, had his parents told him to get rid of the pipe bombs, authorities said.

“They were aware their son was building for a year,” Vizcarra said. “They told him to get rid of it or the police would find it.”

Neighbors said Herrera’s father had talked about his son being recruited by the Army and that he believed his son was practicing bomb-making in preparation to join the service. The word “soldier” was written all over Herrera’s school bag, authorities said.

Oxnard Union High School Supt. William G. Studt said he was stunned that explosive devices had allegedly been found at Herrera’s home. Herrera, described as a good student with good grades, had not been a disciplinary problem except for a minor classroom disturbance earlier this school year, Studt said.

“My question is: What are the parents doing? How can you make bombs in the bedroom? It’s crazy. The whole thing is pretty bizarre,” he said.

During his interview with Herrera at the school, Vizcarra said, he searched a small duffel bag the teen was carrying and uncovered eight to 10 videotapes. Vizcarra said officers had not reviewed the tapes but that Herrera said the tapes contain footage of him making and detonating bombs.

“He stated it is a hobby of his,” Vizcarra said.

Police then went to Herrera’s house on Pleasant Valley Road where they found a box in his bedroom containing about 10 homemade pipe bombs, authorities said. Vizcarra described each device as being a metal pipe about 6 inches long, capped at each end with electrical wires extending from the pipe.

In other parts of the house, officers found bomb-making components, items that appear to be electronic triggers and detonators, authorities said.

After the discovery, the sheriff’s bomb squad was immediately called to the scene and more than 200 residents in a four-block radius were evacuated. The displaced residents were told to go to Hathaway Elementary School several blocks away.

“I don’t know what people are thinking. I don’t know why they are so intent on destroying each other,” said Angelica Morales, an evacuated neighbor as she waited at Hathaway with her two young children. “I’m scared for our community and for our children.”

Student Arrested in Alleged Web Threat

Bomb squad officers, outfitted in special protective gear, loaded the devices into a “bomb bucket” and transported them to another site to be X-rayed. Wilcox said the devices would be detonated if they prove to be live.

Residents were allowed to return to their homes shortly before 6 p.m. when the bomb experts declared the scene safe.

In Newbury Park, a high school sophomore was arrested Thursday morning after police received a tip he had listed the principal, a teacher and several students on the school’s Web page, indicating harm would come to each of them, authorities said.

A student at another school conducting research on the Internet came across the Web page Wednesday night and called police, authorities said. Sheriff’s officials called in the FBI to track down the source of the Internet site.

The student told investigators he never meant to carry out his threats.

“We cannot take these as just a prank,” Sheriff’s Cmdr. Kathy Kemp said. “We intend to investigate, arrest and prosecute each of these matters.”

Authorities said the boy was arrested about 3 a.m. at his Thousand Oaks home and booked on suspicion of making a terrorist threat. He has since been released to his parents.

Nesbitt, of the FBI, said the student went to some lengths to cover his tracks, tapping into an Internet account that belonged to a man in Baltimore to create the list. Using the Baltimore account, the student then sent the hit list as an attachment to the school’s Internet site.

Investigators, however, were ultimately able to track the page back to the Thousand Oaks boy and served a search warrant at the boy’s home just after 1 a.m. Thursday, authorities said. Investigators said no weapons were found at the residence.

On Wednesday afternoon, the boy called authorities to apologize for creating the page, saying he meant it only as a prank, and he had since replaced the list with an apology letter.

“What started out as a stupid immature, sadistic joke and rumor has gone too far,” the letter began and concluded with apologies to the principal, a teacher and each of the students named on the list.

The student has been suspended from school and Conejo Valley Unified School District Supt. Jerry Gross said he expects the school’s principal to recommend expulsion.

The arrest comes after a wave of bomb scares and hints of other violent acts were reported at seven other Ventura County campuses since Monday, including one that lead to the arrest of a juvenile at Fillmore High School Wednesday and the evacuation of Moorpark High School Wednesday.

24-Hour Security Posted at Some Schools

Authorities say they have been flooded with calls from students and parents wondering whether it was safe to send their children to school. But Kemp said a 12-member task force was created this week to track down rumors on threats and that so far “nothing has been substantiated.”

As a precaution, 24-hour security guards have been posted at schools throughout the county--including Simi Valley, Newbury Park and Thousand Oaks campuses--through at least Saturday.

Times staff writer Fred Alvarez contributed to this story. Saillant and Dirmann are staff writers. Wolcott is a Times Community News correspondent.