This story is developing.
The University of Maryland, Baltimore County police department received a call from UMBC Athletics at 12:01 p.m. today saying a threat had been made against members of the athletic community. Within minutes, police responded to the call and determined that no threat had been made.
“Nobody said that they were going to come to campus to commit a violent act,” said Chief of Police Paul Dillon.
He stated that the incident started from a statement being taken out of context and assumed to indicate a threat.
“A lot of this was big time rumor mill kind of stuff,” explained Dillon.
Despite there being no threat to campus, Athletic Director Brian Barrio made the call to cancel all scheduled practices, athletic treatments and COVID-19 testing appointments.
“Everybody’s had such a hard week,” said Barrio, referring to the recent death of retired swim and dive coach Chad Cradock and the impact it has had on the swim and dive team and the broader Athletics community. “I just told everyone to go home and take the day off.”
Both Dillon and Barrio were unable to state who out of athletics the threat was directed towards.
