State police have suspects in three out of four AG bomb threats
YORK RUN – State police said they know who is responsible for three out of four bomb threats at Albert Gallatin Area High School over the past month. Trooper James Pierce said the latest bomb threat happened Tuesday when police were called to the Albert Gallatin Senior High School in Georges Township.
“We got this one,” Pierce said. “A 14-year-old boy wrote a message in the boy’s bathroom, located in hallway C.”
Pierce said the message stated, “There is a bomb in the school. If you don’t send everyone home, they will all die.”
Pierce said after writing the message the boy allegedly told vice principal Lara Bezjuk that he discovered the threat in the bathroom. Pierce said, however, that was not the case.
“The boy subsequently admitted to Bezjuk that he wrote the threat,” said Pierce. “He later provided us with a written confession saying that he wrote the message so he could go home.”
Pierce said criminal charges would be filed against the teen at the Fayette County Juvenile Probation Office.
He also said that a 16-year-old freshman girl, who was identified as a suspect in the March 19 bomb threat incident, eventually admitted to writing a bomb threat in the girl’s bathroom in hallway A of the school’s second floor.
That girl, according to Pierce, also faces criminal charges at the Fayette County Juvenile Probation Office.
Although the school was not evacuated Tuesday, Pierce said it was evacuated on March 19 and Cpl. Kenneth Munshower of the state police Bureau of Special Emergencies and Special Operations Unit and his dog searched the school but found no bomb. Smithfield and Fairchance volunteer fire departments assisted at the scene.
Police said they have a suspect in the March 12 bomb threat at the school. However, Pierce said charges against that person are pending lab results.
According to the police report there was a note found at the high school, saying a bomb was placed in the building. The school was evacuated and the students were dismissed, according to superintendent Walter Vicinelly.
State police said a teacher discovered the bomb-threat message, which was written on a piece of paper and handing on the wall inside stair tower C, at 7:30 a.m.
Police didn’t say if they have a suspect in the March 24 bomb threat at separate buildings that cancelled classes at the senior high school and caused the evacuation at A.G. North Middle School in Masontown.
State police said a male called the Fayette County 911 emergency dispatch center March 23 at 7:29 p.m. and said he heard a bomb was going to go off at 8 a.m. Monday at the high school.
Police said the school was closed because the search dogs were not immediately available. They also said at 8:40 a.m. March 24 A.G. North school officials reported that several notes were found in the school stating that a bomb was placed there.
Administrators, school district security and state police again responded along with Masontown police and firefighters and Ronco firefighters.
Students were evacuated and sent to the Masontown Volunteer Fire Department hall located near the school.
A search dog was still in the area, according to police, and able to join in a through search of the building and again showed it was clear and safe. Students returned to the building around 10:30 a.m. and classes resumed.
Vicinelly said Tuesday that the school district is making every effort to apprehend and prosecute anyone guilty of making a bomb threat.
Anyone with information on the Fayette County 911 emergency dispatch bomb threats is asked to call state police at 724-439-7111.