BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — An active shooting threat on Monday left many students without warning when emergency alerts were sent out at California State University, Bakersfield.
“The caller threatened to come to campus, shoot on campus and blow himself up,” said Mari Gonzalez, the CSUB chief of police.
Officials with CSUB hold meeting on emergency alerts after shooting threats
Who made the call and why is still under investigation, but it caused the entire campus to go on lockdown.
Emergency alerts were sent by administration, but some students reported not getting an alert, some got an alert before their professor, while others didn’t know what was happening at all.
Gonzalez said when students enroll, they provide their information to get notified of an emergency. The names and contact information of those students are sent to a third party to send out any emergency alerts on campus.
“There was an issue identified by the third-party vendor where some of those names did not get processed and added,” said Gonzalez.
Now, the college is looking into a new vendor, one that is used by other Cal State schools and universities across the nation, but the details on that contract haven’t been finalized yet.
Bakersfield PD identifies ‘no credible threat’ at Bakersfield College campus following lockdown
One phone call shut down the entire campus. Some classrooms barricaded doors and windows and some sat in the dark. The Sheriff’s Office, Bakersfield police and campus police were all called to the university.
17 News asked Gonzalez her thoughts on how one caller could cause this much chaos.
“I feel frustrated that they had to deal with that,” said Gonzalez. “This is what we get paid for, right, is to have these responses. When you’re just trying to come to campus, or come to school, or come to your job, that shouldn’t be something you have to deal with.”
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17 News.