JERSEY CITY, N.J. (1010 WINS) -- Authorities say they have tracked down the source of threatening e-mails, that along with a seemingly unrelated handwritten note, caused the lockdown of St. Peter's College campus for nearly five hours on Wednesday.
Jersey City police said Friday that authorities in Corpus Christi, Texas, arrested 18-year-old Christy Perez on charges of making terroristic threats and causing a false public alarm. Police said the high school student was taken into custody shortly after 4 p.m. Friday. She was awaiting processing Friday night at the Nueces County Jail. It was not immediately clear if she had retained a lawyer.
1010 WINS AUDIO: Sonia Rincon Reports
Jersey City Police Chief Tom Comey said investigators traced a series of anonymous e-mails allegedly sent by Perez on Tuesday and Wednesday to the 19-year-old female roommate of her boyfriend.
Perez had met the boyfriend, a 19-year-old St. Peter's College freshman, online, Comey said.
Police said there was no romantic relationship between the boyfriend and the roommate, who live in an off-campus apartment. But Comey said Perez was jealous. The roommate is not enrolled this semester but is involved with campus clubs, police said. Police declined to name the boyfriend or the roommate.
Police said the roommate reported the e-mail threats to authorities on Tuesday night, including one that referred to a meeting the roommate was supposed to attend on the St. Peter's campus on Wednesday.
"You cannot simply hit a send button and think that nothing's going to happen,'' Comey said.
When a separate, handwritten note threatening violence was found Wednesday morning taped to a wall in a campus building, authorities ordered the campuswide lockdown.
At a Friday news conference, police said there now appears to be no connection between the e-mails and the threatening note, which referenced last year's campus shootings at Virginia Tech that left 33 people dead including gunman Seung-Hui Cho.
Comey described the timing as "a coincidence'' and said police are still investigating to try to determine who posted the note.
The college was put on lockdown for nearly five hours as police with bomb-sniffing dogs conducted a building by building search for explosives.
Authorities have not released the specific contents of either the e-mails or the note, but have said the e-mails threatened violence against the individual while the note was a more general threat against the campus.
The college president, Eugene J. Cornacchia, has described the wording of the note as "chilling.''
Get More New Jersey News: NYC Boroughs & 'Burbs
E-Mail Story
Print Story
