A student was arrested Tuesday for allegedly emailing a threat of violence to Cal State Long Beach, which prompted officials to advise those on campus to shelter in place and others to stay away.
The arrest of 18-year-old Prateek Devulpally comes a day after the lockdown and after university officials announced they had detained a female student from whose email account the threat was allegedly sent. That student has been found not to have been responsible, according to campus police.
Officials issued an alert about 3:45 p.m. Monday after receiving what was described as a "credible threat,'' according to Jeff Bliss, the university's executive director of media and digital news.
School officials later said the threat was in an email that was received about 2:10 p.m.
The female student from whose account the threat was emailed had an appointment at a campus resource center and was located and taken into custody, officials said.
Campus police gave the all-clear at 4:23 p.m., reporting that shelter in place orders had been lifted and "the sole suspect'' was in custody.
The lockdown of the campus was done out of an abundance of caution, Bliss said, and campus police called the matter an isolated incident.
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"During a post-arrest interview with university police, Devulpally confessed to illegally accessing another student's email account to send the threatening email while both students were on campus,'' according to campus police Capt. John Brockie.
Devulpally was booked on suspicion of making criminal threats and using computer services knowingly and without permission, Brockie said.
"The female suspect detained yesterday is working with the University Police Department and supports prosecution of Devulpally for creating and sending the threat from her email account,'' Brockie said. "Through a diligent investigation, university police detectives were able to determine the female detained did not generate the email threat.''
Devulpally was being held at the Long Beach Police Department jail in lieu of $50,000 bail, according to sheriff's inmate records.
