Officials give all-clear after bomb threat shuts down Sutter County courthouse in Yuba City
Evacuations were lifted after several notes detailing a bomb threat closed Sutter County’s Yuba City courthouse Tuesday, shuttering businesses and forcing evacuations within a quarter-mile of the building as bomb detonation squads combed the building.
Officials gave the “all clear” just after 10 a.m. and said court operations were expected to resume in the afternoon. Sessions on the morning calendar will be rescheduled, court officials said.
Authorities say several notes were left about a potential bomb in the building before 7 a.m. The notes were found inside the courthouse, as well as at the county administrator’s office and the Sheriff’s Office nearby.
Sierra Pedley, a spokesperson for the Sutter County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were trying to determine whether the notes were credible: “I can’t confirm if it’s been handwritten or typed, but I do know it was found early this morning and sent a little bit of panic to the person who found it (in the court).”
Explosive teams from the Sacramento and Butte County sheriff’s offices were called in to comb the building for any devices. Yuba City police and the California Highway Patrol were on hand to help secure the area for several hours.
“We’re taking all precautions to make sure everybody is safe,” Pedley said during the shutdown, as detectives from the Sheriff’s Office worked to identify who left the notes behind.
Sutter County Sheriff Brandon Barnes said the threats were being “fully investigated” by his office Tuesday afternoon.
“There is no greater responsibility than keeping our community and our staff safe when these types of threats are brought to our attention,” Barnes said in a statement after evacuation orders were lifted. “These matters are always taken seriously by my office, and it is being fully investigated.”
Emergency alerts sent to cellphones
Residents in the area first were told via emergency cellphone alerts to shelter in place before being ordered to leave areas within a quarter-mile of the building.
The alert at 9:20 a.m. told people to “shelter in place due to a bomb threat ... get indoors now and stay inside. Avoid the area.”
Less than an hour later, at 10:04 a.m., authorities issued an additional alert, telling people nearby to “leave now due to a bomb threat if you are within 1/4 mile of courthouse in Yuba City. Civic Center Blvd and Poole Ave are closed.”
Poole Boulevard was closed to Stabler Lane; Civic Center was closed from Highway 20 to Butte House Road. A number of government buildings surrounding the court complex were also closed off to the public.
Desra Perez had lined up inside the DMV a block away at Starr Drive and Stabler Lane when the alert sounded on her phone and others nearby.
“I was up in the line with the ladies when the bomb threat thing went off while we were all in there,” she said.
Perez, a Wheatland resident, had scheduled an appointment in advance for her teenage daughter to get her driving permit. She was missing some documents and, when the alert sounded at about 8:50 a.m., she was told to retrieve them and come back. When she returned, the DMV was closed.
“I was hoping it would be quick ... but it looks like all of the employees left because I don’t see any cars in the parking lot at all.”
Along with civic buildings adjacent to the courthouse, several storefronts and businesses within the perimeter were also closed, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Feather River Temple and destinations across Highway 99 such as the Target store are closed. Officials with the Yuba Sutter Marketplace said its doors remained open and that individual businesses were determining whether to close.
Businesses on the main roads outside of the perimeter were not affected.
The Yuba City courthouse, built by the state for nearly $66 million and opened in 2016, has seven courtrooms and replaced outdated facilities scattered across several buildings in the administrative center of the city. The courthouse is adjacent to City Hall and connected by tunnel to the jail, according to court officials.
Several courthouses across California have come under threat in recent months. One device exploded on Sept. 25 at Santa Barbara Superior Court’s Santa Maria courthouse, injuring five people. A man suspected of triggering an “intentionally set improvised explosive device” was arrested immediately after the explosion, said authorities.
Nathaniel James McGuire, 20, of Santa Maria, was charged in Los Angeles federal court with maliciously damaging a building by means of an explosive. Federal prosecutors said deputies found ammunition, weapons, another suspected bomb and Molotov cocktails in his waiting car, calling McGuire’s alleged actions “chilling.”
In Stockton, San Joaquin Superior Court was forced to close its downtown courthouse the same day after a bomb threat was made by phone to justice officials there. No injuries were reported.
Jurors assigned to jury duty on Tuesday at the Yuba City courthouse can call 530-822-3307 for information, court officials said.
This story was originally published December 10, 2024 at 9:15 AM.
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