Over 100 people were evacuated from the Leavey Center and Yates Field House Saturday night after an anonymous phone call to the Department of Public Safety indicated that bombs had been planted in the two buildings.
A Metropolitan Police Department investigation did not yield explosives at either building.
“MPD showed up, conducted canine sweeps of first the hotel and then Leavey Center and Yates Field House,” said David orrell, vice president for university safety. “It took approximately an hour and a half to recover the entire situation.”
The investigation into the incident is ongoing, Morrell said.
“The case has been referred to MPD. We will coordinate with them by providing what
assistance and information that we can,” said DPS Director Darryl Harrison.
Morrell said he was optimistic that the caller will be caught.
“Some information was obtained, hopefully something will materialize in the investigation. We’ll see what happens in the investigation into the phone call itself,” he said.
Tracing phone calls requires a court order, and would be the responsibility of MPD and not DPS, according to Morrell.
DPS received the call at approximately 9 p.m. and immediately called MPD and dispatched their own officers to the two locations. The two buildings, including the Marriott Hotel Conference Center, were evacuated, Morrell said.
Georgetown has received bomb threats in the past and thus already had protocol in place to deal with the situation, Harrison said.
“We review our response and procedures in all incidents like this,” he said.
Renu Chhabra was staying in the Marriott when it was evacuated. Everyone left the hotel when the fire alarm was pulled – including a wedding party that was having its reception in the banquet room, she said.
After realizing that they wouldn’t be able to reenter the hotel, the bride and groom made speeches from the steps at the back of the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, where the bride also threw her bouquet, Chhabra said.
Chhabra estimated that approximately 175 hotel guests waited outside of the Lombardi Center for about two hours.
“We didn’t really know what was going on until they let us back in, so no one was really very scared. We just felt bad for the bride and groom,” she said.
Greg Burie (SFS ’09), who was staying with his parents in the Marriott during their Parents’ Weekend visit, said the evacuation was barely a hassle.
“We didn’t know what was going on, but it was no big deal. My parents went out and by the time they got back it was over,” he said.
Gabrielle Perreux (NHS ’09) was working the 6:30-9:30 p.m. shift at the front desk of Yates when DPS officers came in and asked her if she had seen anyone in a black trench coat.
“We knew something was going on because we had never seen that many DPS officers in Yates,” she said.
She estimated that 20-25 people were evacuated from Yates, which then closed for the night.