Hours after gunmen launched an attack on a social services facility in California Wednesday, threats of an attack sent a St. Johnsbury human services center into lockdown.
Threats of gun violence phoned into the Northeast Kingdom Human Services location in St. Johnsbury Wednesday evening prompted the facility to call in the Caledonia County sheriff and the Vermont State Police.
According to DW Bouchard, the designated agency’s executive director, two calls came in Wednesday evening and another two Thursday morning.
“In the field that I’m in, you’re always worried about copycats,” Bouchard said Thursday. “With what went on in California, we were just being very safe, very cautious.”
The threats prompted a lockdown of the facility for approximately three and a half hours Thursday morning. After searching the facility, law enforcement reported that they did not find any suspicious items or people.
Approximately 100 employees work at Northeast Kingdom Human Services in St. Johnsbury, according to Bouchard, though he did not know how many of them were on-site during the lockdown.
During that time, the doors were locked and staff and clients were escorted between the facility and their cars, according to Vermont State Police public information officer Scott Waterman.
Police said in a release Thursday afternoon that law enforcement investigators “do not believe there is an ongoing threat.”
Bouchard said the calls came from a single individual, but declined to provide further information citing an ongoing police investigation.
The Vermont State Police say that detectives have determined the call was made from outside the country.
Safety of state-employed social services providers has been a topic of concern in recent months, in the wake of the shooting of a Department for Children and Families social worker in August.
Bouchard said he has “a high level of confidence” in the security measures in place for the Northeast Kingdom Human Services and Vermont’s other designated agencies, non-governmental organizations that the state contracts with to provide services, including those relating to mental health and substance abuse.
The agency has received threats in the past, according to Bouchard. However, he added, “this one was big enough and threatening enough to rise up a bit higher,” he said.
