Two teens arrested for threatened attack at Clear Lake High School

Two Lake County teens were arrested early Thursday in connection with shooting and bomb threats phoned in to Clear Lake High School, according to the Lakeport Police Department.

The threats, made Wednesday afternoon, triggered a large-scale multiagency police response that culminated in the detonation of a fake bomb and the subsequent arrests of the two brothers, police said.

Multiple law enforcement agencies continue to investigate the source of the threats, which originated from a Bakersfield Skype number that frequently is used by cybercriminals to generate scams and harassing communications, police said. Similar calls were made to at least three other schools from the same number on Wednesday, including a school in Oceanside, San Diego County, and one in Marysville, Wash., police said.

The Clear Lake High School caller threatened to come to the school with an Uzi and to drop chemicals and bombs on the campus at 5 p.m., according to Lakeport police. At 8:42 p.m. Wednesday, police were alerted that someone suspicious was spotted on campus and had left three packages.

The packages were blown up by the Napa County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad at 1:20 a.m. Thursday, according to the Lakeport Police Department. Upon examination, the packages contained only inert ingredients, police said.

The packages also contained materials that police traced to a former Clear Lake High School student. The boy and one of his brothers, both 17, were arrested on suspicion of making terrorist threats, threatening to place a bomb, placing a false bomb and possession of a lethal weapon on school grounds. They were booked into the county’s juvenile hall.

Neither school nor police officials were available to comment. It was unclear whether the school campus had been cleared of students following the phone calls.

The Marysville campus was immediately evacuated and police were called following a robotic phone threat received at about 1:45 p.m., according to news reports. Four teens were fatally shot last year in the Marysville Pilchuck High School cafeteria by a fellow student who then took his own life.

The Oceanside school was placed on lockdown.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MendoReporter.