San Luis Obispo courthouse evacuated after bomb threat

UPDATE 5 p.m.: San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Tony Cipolla said that sheriff’s deputies responded to a phone threat by conducting a sweep of the courthouse using a K-9 unit and that no suspicious devices were found. The Sheriff’s Bomb Task Force was not called.

UPDATE 11:50 a.m.: San Luis Obispo police Capt. Chris Staley confirmed that the threat that prompted Wednesday morning’s evacuation was a bomb threat made by phone.

ORIGINAL STORY: The San Luis Obispo Superior Courthouse was evacuated for about an hour Wednesday morning and a block of downtown San Luis Obispo was closed to traffic as police investigated an as-yet undisclosed threat.

A bailiff entered a courtroom at about 9:05 a.m. and informed those inside that San Luis Obispo sheriff’s deputies were evacuating the building.

Palm and Monterey streets from Santa Rosa to Osos were closed to traffic, and officers directed a few hundred evacuees a block away. The building was reopened shortly after 10 a.m., but police haven’t provided any details about the threat.

As of 9:45, the court had yet to be re-opened and transport vans carrying County Jail inmates to court for hearings were loaded up and taken back to the jail.

Early information indicated the court would resume its calendar at 1:45 p.m.

A sheriff’s deputy on scene who didn’t want to be named said the evacuation was caused by a bomb threat.

More information will be posted here when it becomes available.

This story was originally published March 23, 2016 at 10:06 AM with the headline "San Luis Obispo courthouse evacuated after bomb threat."