Brooklyn Tech High School evacuated after bomb threat: cops
Brooklyn Technical High School was evacuated Thursday morning after someone emailed a bomb threat, police said.
“There has been a bomb placed inside the school it’s in a black rucksack the bomb will blow up at 4pm today,” the email to the Fort Greene school read, according to law enforcement sources.
“There is an armed gun man inside the building from last night and will,” read the email which abruptly cut off, the sources said.
Police responded to the nearly 6,000-student public school at around 8:12 a.m. following a 911 and cleared out the whole building.
About three hours later authorities gave the all-clear and students were let back into the school to resume classes.
As police investigated the threat and swept the building, hordes of students filled surrounding streets and nearby Fort Greene Park.
Students and staff were eventually redirected to nearby Long Island University, but many stayed at Fort Greene Park, while others spilled into nearby stores.
“We’re going to Whole Foods. We’re hungry,” one sophomore said. “They’re going to put all 6,000 of us in the gym? No way.”
Some students griped that they were left in the dark about what was going on during the evacuation.
“They told us it was a gas leak. Then they told us it was drill. There were teachers blocking the subway station,” a junior said.
Teachers were heard telling students that class would resume after the NYPD gave the all-clear, but some reluctant students said they did not want to go back to class following the hours-long ordeal.
“I’m not going back,” one student said.
Senior Ty Cutler, 17, speculated that the threat was made by “someone just worried about a test.”
“Someone wanted to get out of school,” Cutler, the editor-in-chief of the school paper, said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted about the incident nearly two hours after police responded to the school.
“The NYPD are conducting a sweep of Brooklyn Tech after receiving a threat,” de Blasio said. “We’re redirecting students and staff to nearby Long Island University in the interim. We will provide updates once we know more.”