Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, on Tuesday was abruptly pulled from an occasion at a Washington highschool after college officers obtained a telephone name threatening to set off a bomb, authorities mentioned.
Police mentioned Dunbar Excessive College’s entrance desk obtained the menace at 2:15, with the caller asserting everybody within the college “had 10 minutes to depart” the constructing earlier than the explosive detonated.
College officers handed alongside the knowledge to the Secret Service, which evacuated Emhoff three minutes later from the Black Historical past Month occasion, mentioned Ashan Benedict, a spokesman for the town’s Metropolitan Police Division.
Reporters attending the occasion watched as a U.S. Secret Service agent turned to Emhoff and mentioned, “We’ve got to go,” earlier than hustling the second gentleman away.
Benedict mentioned police had no indication the menace was associated to Emhoff or his go to to the varsity.
Inside minutes, college students and academics have been additionally ordered to evacuate, about an hour earlier than the varsity day ended.
“As soon as all the scholars have been safely taken out of the varsity, our of us went inside and performed their sweeps,” Benedict mentioned. “There is no such thing as a ongoing menace.”
College students at Dunbar Excessive College as evacuated after a bomb menace was referred to as into the varsity on Tuesday.
(Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Instances)
Katie Peters, a spokeswoman for Emhoff, mentioned in a tweet that the second gentleman was secure. The “Secret Service was made conscious of a safety menace at a college the place he was assembly with college students and college,” she tweeted. “Mr. Emhoff is secure and the varsity has been evacuated. We’re grateful to Secret Service and D.C. police for his or her work.”
Emhoff was anticipated to satisfy with college students finishing an oral historical past undertaking that connects their household histories to Black historical past.
The bomb menace underscores the potential security dangers confronted by high White Home officers, particularly Harris, who’s the primary lady and first Black individual to grow to be vp. She is among the many high targets of on-line harassment. It’s the first identified time a member of the second household needed to be evacuated due to a safety menace since taking workplace.
Harris was evacuated from the Democratic Nationwide Committee after police discovered a pipe bomb planted close to the constructing within the hours earlier than the Jan. 6, 2021, revolt on the U.S. Capitol.
Emhoff was concerned in a 2019 incident in the course of the presidential major when he helped take away an animal rights protester who jumped onstage throughout an occasion and grabbed Harris’ microphone.
The incident comes weeks after a torrent of pretend bomb threats towards public colleges and traditionally black schools and universities across the nation.
