New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton on Tuesday dismissed an email threat to schools in the city, calling it a “hoax” that sounded like it came from a fan of the TV show “Homeland.”
“I think the initiator, the instigator of the threat may be a ‘Homeland’ fan, basically watching ‘Homeland’ episodes that it mirrors a lot of recent episodes on ‘Homeland,'” Bratton said.
{mosads}”This is not a credible threat,” Bratton continued during a press conference aired by news networks. “It is not something that we are concerned with. What we would be concerned with is overreacting to it.”
His remarks came hours after officials in Los Angeles closed the school district there, keeping home more than 600,000 students. Officials said they had received a bomb threat.
Bratton, speaking alongside New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio hours later, said officials in New York had reviewed an email that appeared to be sent from overseas and determined it was a “hoax.”
The email was received by a New York superintendent early Tuesday, Bratton said, adding that one indication it was a hoax was that it did not spell Allah with a capital “A.”
De Blasio described the threat as generic and implausible and said it was sent to numerous school districts nationwide.
A law enforcement official told The Associated Press that a board member in L.A. received the threat to schools late Monday that appeared to come from overseas.
The school district superintendent in L.A., Ramon Cortines, told reporters earlier Tuesday that he couldn’t “take a chance” and decided to close the schools in the wake of the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings.
Police in California earlier Tuesday said they were vetting the threat to determine whether it was credible.