At 5:26 p.m. today, the Johns Hopkins Emergency Alert Text Message System sent a campus-wide message informing students of a bomb threat at Subway. The message read, “Bomb threat at Subway Restaurant located at 33rd & St Paul, Charles Village. Avoid the Location.”
According to Dennis O’Shea, Hopkins Executive Director of Media Relations and Crisis Communications, the warning was following reports of a questionable item left on the sidewalk in front of Subway, not a bomb.
“Apparently it wasn’t a threat, it was a suspicious package that was seen,” O’Shea said. “That package has been checked and it has been determined that it wasn’t a threat, so everything is secure.”
According to O’Shea, an off-duty Baltimore police officer working for Hopkins at the time had noticed a suspicious suitcase. JHU Campus Safety and Security then established a perimeter around the location while a Baltimore police officer took possession of the suitcase.
“Campus Safety apparently secured the perimeter, but it was an on-duty Baltimore police officer who actually apparently took custody of the suspicious object,” O’Shea said.
Upon investigating the suspicious item, it was determined that the suitcase contained clothing and did not contain any sort of explosive device.
