Dallas Baptist University (DBU) was evacuated following threats prior to a visit from Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner and Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson.<\/p>\n
Officials have since declared an \u201call clear.\u201d<\/p>\n
DBU students and staff evacuated the morning of January 22, citing \u201cunverified threats\u201d just hours before an event with Turner and Johnson, following a string<\/a> of threats across the metroplex \u2013 some linked to an online extremist<\/a> group, as The Dallas Express reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been made aware of several unverified threats involving the campus,\u201d DBU President Adam Wright emailed students at 9:17 a.m. \u201cOut of an extreme abundance of caution, we have made the decision to evacuate the campus so that we can determine the legitimacy of these unverified threats.\u201d<\/p>\n DBU officials alerted students at 1:51 p.m. that the campus was \u201call clear,\u201d with facilities reopening in the evening and classes resuming January 23.<\/p>\n At the time of the evacuation, there was no confirmed \u201cimmediate danger,\u201d and the school was working with law enforcement to ensure safety, according to Wright. <\/p>\n If students have an emergency or if they see anything suspicious, he asked them to call DBU Police at 214-333-5555.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe safety and well-being of our students, faculty, and staff remain our highest priority,\u201d Wright wrote.<\/p>\n DBU Freshman Shane Seafoss told The Dallas Express he was walking to class when a friend told him everyone needed to leave.<\/p>\n \u201cMy body kind of went cold. I was like, \u2018Wait, what happened?\u2019 She\u2019s like, \u2018Look at your email,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThey were calling for an immediate evacuation.\u201d<\/p>\n Students began heading for their cars, according to Seafoss.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was insane. I\u2019ve never seen so many people walking in one direction,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re all running to our cars, and didn\u2019t have time to get anything.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, first responders lined the parking lot of Pilgrim Chapel with \u201call these heavy-duty vehicles,\u201d according to Seafoss, thinking that a bomb squad responded.<\/p>\n Seafoss said he was unsure who the threats specifically targeted, or if they pertained to the event with Turner and Johnson, but he did applaud DBU officials for their efficiency in \u201cmaking sure that all of us were safe and off the campus.\u201d <\/p>\n The school offered shuttle buses to help students get off campus.<\/p>\n The Dallas Express reached out to Johnson\u2019s office, but did not hear back in time for publication.\u00a0<\/p>\n The same morning, Wiley University in East Texas went on lockdown<\/a> after a \u201ccredible\u201d online threat, as KLTV reported. The school resumed classes at noon.<\/p>\n Masked suspects threatened<\/a> Texas schools online earlier this month, as The Dallas Express reported. Days later, officers with the Fort Worth Police Department arrested<\/a> alleged arsonist Evan Banda for terrorism, claiming ties to the \u201cviolent extremist hate organization\u201d behind the threats. DX confirmed this group was the Ukrainian \u201caccelerationist\u201d group MKY, under the online \u201cnihilistic violent extremist\u201d network 764.<\/p>\n Since then, numerous locations across the metroplex have been receiving threats, as The Dallas Express reported. Frisco ISD closed campuses twice the week of January 12 for online threats, and a Walmart across from AT&T Stadium closed down January 17 for a false bomb threat.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the time of publication, it was unclear if any of these incidents were connected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Baptist University (DBU) was evacuated following threats prior to a visit from Housing and Urban Development Secretary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[57345,102,34026,57343,3745,104,103,4376,57344,1049],"class_list":{"0":"post-134122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-adam-wright","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-baptist","11":"tag-dallas-baptist-university","12":"tag-dallas-express","13":"tag-dallas-headlines","14":"tag-dallas-news","15":"tag-eric-johnson","16":"tag-scott-turner","17":"tag-students"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}