The UCSD Police Department issued a campuswide Community
Alert Bulletin on April 4 concerning a male who purportedly made threats to
commit a shooting at an unspecified
college campus, despite the fact that the information was meant for college law
enforcement only.
Local college campus police departments were notified to be
on the lookout for Thai Thanh Dang, a 5-foot-10-inch Asian male.
According to the alert, Dang is not wanted for any specific
crime but is a person of interest to campus police because of the threats. Law
enforcement should be notified if he appears on campus so that officials can
make contact with him.
The alert stated that Dang has a history of threatening to
kill police officers, and that he was arrested last fall on suspicion of
kidnapping a female in
Given his past history, the campus police department advises that people should
consider him armed and dangerous.
Dang was released from a
jail two weeks ago. Police are unaware of his current whereabouts.
Although the police alert regarding Dang’s threats was not
meant to be released to the public, several news reports reiterating the
information provided in the alert surfaced as early as the evening of April 4.
“The information [the Sheriff’s Department] sent to the
colleges was supposed to be intelligence, but it wasn’t supposed to be
disseminated to the news like this, because it causes anxiety,” Lt. Sylvester
of the San Diego Sheriff’s Department said. “We really don’t know how factual
the information is.”
UCSD Chief of Police Orville King said that the information
regarding Dang did not come from the SDSD. He added that campus law
enforcement’s priority is to keep the community well-informed and safe from any
podessible danger.
“We elected to modify the flyer and provide basic
information about Mr. Dang to our campus community that was helpful for their
safety,” King said. “The release of information is precautionary.”
Several students indicated that they appreciated the
information despite reservations by
and the ambiguity of the campus alert e-mail.
“I think people would appreciate being informed of the
possibility that something bad could happen,”
sophomore Jacqueline Cohen said. “Even
though the e-mail was vague, I think that sharing this information campuswide
is just an attempt to prevent a school shooting.”
