Marist lockdown: City teen arraigned on terror charge

Students milling about campus, some heading off to get a bite to eat.

A basketball team opening its season at home.

Scenes of typical college life returned to Marist College late Friday, only hours after the campus was locked down and a City of Poughkeepsie teenager was accused of posting threats on Twitter. The threats affected Marist's 4,692 full-time undergraduate students and 328 graduate students, as well as faculty and staff, and resulted in eight law enforcement and public safety agencies responding.

As fear gave way to normalcy, Frank Brink, 16, stood silently Friday evening, just a few miles away, as Town of Poughkeepsie Judge Stephan Krakower sent him to Dutchess County Jail on $50,000 bail or $75,000 bond on a charge of making a terroristic threat, a felony.

"This is a very serious matter and (Brink) has caused a lot of fear and turmoil," Senior Assistant District Attorney Frank Chase told Krakower during a brief hearing in town court.

The threats came in light of campus shootings in October at the Tennessee State University in Nashville that left one dead and two wounded and at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, where 10 people died, including the gunman, and nine were wounded. Earlier this week, a 19-year-old student was charged after he allegedly threatened social media to shoot black University of Missouri students.

Wearing a white shirt, black pants and black sneakers, Brink said nothing in court.

His lawyer, Susan Mraz Mungavin of the Dutchess County Office of the Public Defender, entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of her client, but declined to make any other statement.

Chase informed the judge Brink had no prior criminal history and that prosecutors would ask that he be evaluated for release on electronic monitoring.

Chase said that if Brink is released on electronic monitoring, prosecutors would recommend he be required to surrender all electronic devices and have no communication over the Internet while his case was weighed.

Town of Poughkeepsie police alleged his two threats, posted on Twitter, came within a seven-hour period, though they did not say on what day.

Police said their investigation determined the threats were not credible.

Nonetheless, they came against the backdrop of recent mass killings in movie theaters, schools, college campuses and foreign capitals. A series of terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday left scores dead. A French police official said at least 100 were killed at a Paris concert hall, the Associated Press reports. In addition, a police official said 11 people were killed in a Paris restaurant in the 10th arrondissement and other officials said at least three people died when bombs went off outside a stadium.

The threats in Poughkeepsie shook the Marist community.

"It was scary at first," said Jake Janso, a 19-year-old Marist student from Fair Lawn, New Jersey. "Eventually, you kind of realize there was a lot of hype to it."

Did his parents call?

"Oh yeah," he said. "Immediately."

Police, in a statement, said the tweets threatened to commit an offense "which created a fear whereupon Marist College closed the campus for a period of time."

Alerts were sent by the college to students, faculty and staff Friday morning, canceling classes and closing all academic buildings until further notice.

Employees and students were told not to come to campus, and all campus residents were instructed to remain in residence halls.

Greg Cannon, Marist's chief public affairs officer, said there were no events or speakers scheduled Friday that he believed "could have generated" a threat of this type.

Police would not confirm which specific tweets sparked the response.

However, one tweet identified through a Poughkeepsie Journal search, warned Marist employees not to go to work because there would be "a big surprise. You have been warned."

Another tweet from the same account was more direct: "Brb (Internet shorthand for be right back), going to shoot up Marist College."

When a threat is posed against the campus, the college works with town police to initiate an investigation, Cannon said.

“Our safety and security personnel confer with the town police, and police would initiate an investigation,” Cannon said of the first step in Marist’s response to a threat. “Security officials and police would determine the best response.”

A campus closure is orchestrated through Marist Alerts, an application that sends out emails, texts and phone calls to students, faculty and staff. The alerts reoccur continuously to each of those platforms until the receiver responds to the alert, Cannon said. The alert is also placed on the college website.

Though staff and students were encouraged to keep the campus clear for safety and investigation purposes, Marist emergency response protocol is to have the president’s cabinet and other senior administrators come to campus to meet and discuss strategy.

"Town of Poughkeepsie police are here, and we have a very good relationship with them," Cannon said, adding that they refer to the advice of town police when determining the safety measures taken during a threat of this nature.

David Dugatkin, chief of the State University of New York at New Paltz's police department, said the college takes many of the same steps. Its notification system includes texts, calls and emails — as well as speakers that can broadcast announcements.

"We have a rather robust speaker array system that covers the outdoors," Dugatkin said, "and we are beginning to include that in new construction and renovation within the buildings also. If and when we have to get the word out, we have multiple ways of doing this."

Vassar College said it has a crisis response planning group in place that oversees management of its crisis plan and the college's responses to incidents. The group meets regularly for crisis preparation, the college said.

The group "has relationships with local law enforcement and other agencies and has collaborated with them, for example, on training exercises," spokeswoman Julia Fishman said.

Poughkeepsie police Capt. Paul Lecomte would not detail how many officers responded Friday, but said the police response included numerous officers, supervisors and detectives, as well as manpower from other agencies.

"It is the type of investigation that requires numerous responses from various divisions and agencies," Lecomte said.

Town police were assisted by state police, the Dutchess County Sheriff's Office, City of Poughkeepsie police, the FBI, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Dutchess County District Attorney's Office, Marist College's Office of Safety and Security and Marist College officials.

John Ferro: 845-437-4816; jferro@poughkeepsiejournal.com; Twitter: @PoJoEnviro; ​Abbott Brant: abrant@poughkeepsiejournal.com; 845-437-4809; Twitter: @AbbottBrantPoJo

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