Bomb scare shutters Ritzville schools

RITZVILLE - Lind-Ritzville schools were shuttered today Tuesday, Oct. 22, after several anonymous bomb and shooting threats posted to social media sites.

School officials made the call to close campuses after being alerted to threats made on social media late Monday.

"These threats included names, methods and times, and we are taking them very seriously," the district said in a press release alerting the community to the closure of schools early this morning.

District administrators contacted police, who asked for assistance from the Adams County Sheriff's Office and the FBI. Police also requested bomb-sniffing dogs from the Spokane County Sheriff's Office and Fairchild Air Force Base, before finding help from a Hanford Nuclear Reservation K-9 unit.

"They said we'll be right up," interim Police Chief Bill Benner said.

The investigation began after area students and residents found the threat on social media.

"We received information from students and parents that there were some threats made on a Snapchat account against several students," Benner said. "And in the process of investigating that, we found one Snapchat page that indicated there was going to be a shooting at the school, and that there would be several people as targets."

A short time after that, Benner received a threat of a bomb to be detonated on a specific date and time. He said no specific school was identified.

The Hanford K-9 searched the school for an explosive device, but came up empty, Benner said, noting the FBI also contacted police to offer assistance.

"One of our officers had put in a request to get information from Snapchat," Benner said. "They reviewed their records and immediately notified the FBI. They in turn contacted us and were able to give us some specific information that we didn't have before."

Local law enforcement will be seeking warrants for information from Snapchat, he said.

"They seem to be very receptive to it and understand the process and have been through it many times before," Benner said.

The school district has yet to say whether school will resume Wednesday, Oct. 23.

"A decision regarding the reopening of schools will be made in consultation with law enforcement," the district said this morning through social media.