The East Mesa Campus of Doña Ana Community College evacuated on Tuesday, Jan. 30, while a Fort Bliss unit investigated a potential bomb threat.
Shortly after noon, the Las Cruces Police Department received a call from the White Sands Missile Range police, who said they found a suspicious device at a storage facility on the 3400 N. Sonoma Ranch Blvd. LCPD responded by closing roads and asking schools to shelter in place, to allow the Fort Bliss explosive disposal unit to conduct their investigation.
At about 1:32 p.m., LCPD asked students and staff at Camino Real Middle School and DACC’s East Mesa Campus to shelter-in-place, out of what the police department called “an abundance of caution” in a statement on Facebook. DACC later canceled in-person classes and evacuated the East Mesa Campus.
LCPD also closed off portions of Sonoma Ranch Boulevard from Sedona Hills Parkway on the south to Rinconada Boulevard on the north and neighborhing roadways.
The Fort Bliss explosives disposal unit removed the potentially dangerous device from the storage facility. Roads reopened to traffic and LCPD lifted the shelter-in-place requests at 4:10 p.m.
Similar incidents occurred Monday, Jan. 22, at an Albuquerque restaurant and a Las Cruces adult probation office. That same day, a bomb exploded at a probation office located in Deming.
