Michelle Marchante/News Director
FIUPD gave the ‘all clear’ Thursday, Nov. 2, hours after ordering an evacuation at the Blue Garage, located in the Modesto Maidique campus, following a bomb threat.
The Miami-Dade Police Department received reports of a threat Oscar Aguayo, an FIU student, allegedly made to the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU at Miami Beach earlier in the day, according to FIUPD’s Deputy Chief Benjamin Guerrero.
Guerrero, a 29-year retired veteran of MDPD who now works at FIUPD, was the commanding officer overseeing the department as Chief Alexander Casas was not on campus.
During a phone call with another student, Aguayo allegedly said he was going to use an explosive at the museum’s “Balfour Declaration and Making of the Modern Middle East: A retrospective marking substantial anniversary” event, Guerrero said. The other student reported Aguayo to MDPD who then contacted Miami Beach Police Department and FIUPD, making it a multi-agency operation.
MBPD sweeped the museum, but did not find any explosives. The event, however, was canceled.
FIUPD assisted in locating Aguayo and while he was being interviewed, FIUPD went to check his vehicle, which was parked at the Blue Garage.
“…[D]ue to the nature of the allegation, we ran one of our explosive dogs by the car and the dog alerted,” Guerrero said. “So now we have a situation where we have a student…that makes some threat to an FIU facility on the beach regarding explosives and then we find out that we have a dog [trained to identify explosives] that alerts to his car…so we had a concern that it could be a legitimate situation where there was some explosive in the vehicle.”
FIUPD then followed protocol, Guerrero said, securing and limiting access to the garage, setting up a perimeter and contacting the Miami Dade Police Department Bomb Squad.
No explosives were found, but some chemical nutrition supplements were found. MDPD Bomb Squad believes this may have been what alerted the dog.
Aguayo has not been charged and was released by MDPD, the lead department in the investigation as of this moment, Guerrero said, but the University’s Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution office will be reviewing the situation. Aguayo, the Miami Herald reports, has been suspended.
Media Relations said they are unable to confirm Aguayo’s disciplinary actions because of The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which protects the privacy of student education records.
FIUPD sent out an emergency notification to the FIU community, alerting them to stay away from the Blue Garage through text messages, phone calls and emails. They also posted alerts on their different social media channels.
“…I’m very proud of the way our department and our officers responded to this scene…and I think everything was done in a matter that was both consistent with our policy and certainly in an effort to make sure that safety was paramount for the community,” Guerrero said.
Featured Image by Fabienne Fleurantin/PantherNOW
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