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US schools close after a spate of copycat threats

A Web designer was charged with posting on his own site a bogus threat to kill 50 San Diego State University students, then alerting a TV station to try to draw publicity, the FBI said. It was among several cases emerging days after the Virginia Tech massacre.

Cristobal Fernando Gonzalez, 32, faces one felony count of making a threatening communication through the Internet. He was being held on US$30,000 bail on Thursday.

Scores of schools across the country shut down or evacuated students on Thursday and at least a dozen people were arrested or under investigation. The wave of campus threats started soon after Monday's Virginia Tech shootings, in which 23-year-old gunman Cho Seung-hui killed 32 people and himself. At least two students were arrested for bringing guns onto campus.

A man who allegedly threatened a school attack in Yuba City, California, that would dwarf the Virginia Tech attacks turned himself in to authorities late on Thursday, according to a dispatcher at the Sutter County Sheriff's Department. It ended a manhunt that prompted school districts in two cities to tighten security.

The man told a pastor on Wednesday night that "he had some sort of explosive device and he was going to make the incident at Virginia Tech look mild by comparison," Sutter County Sheriff Jim Denney said.

In Michigan, police said they arrested a former Kalamazoo Valley Community College student who posted Internet messages praising the Virginia Tech shooting. Officials closed the college's two campuses.

The 26-year-old man "said his intent was just to evoke a response from other people," sheriff's Lieutenant Terry VanStreain said. "He got a response from us, I guarantee you that."
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