Campus Alert Archive
LCSC

Four Days After Virginia Tech: 'Get His Dad's Rifle and Shoot Students from the Clock Tower'

IDthreat of violenceemergency notificationmedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

On Friday, April 20, 2007 — four days after the Virginia Tech shooting — Lewis-Clark State College closed campus after an 18-year-old student allegedly told an acquaintance he wanted to 'get his dad's rifle and shoot students from the clock tower' at LCSC and 'go over to the high school and kill a lot of people there too.' The college activated its Warrior Mail and phone-tree emergency response plan, among the earliest documented uses of higher-ed mass notification post-Virginia Tech.

Alerts
2
Response
—
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
Lewis-Clark State College
Public Bachelors · ID
~4,000 studentsWarrior Mail / Phone Tree
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTEmail
Approximate reconstruction224 chars
LCSC: Due to a credible threat against the college, classes are canceled today and the campus is closed. All students and employees should not come to campus until further notice. Updates will follow by email and phone tree.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Sent to LCSC student Warrior Mail email accounts; LCSC also activated a phone tree to reach off-campus community members
Closure came four days after the April 16, 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, when colleges nationwide were re-evaluating threat protocols
President Dene Thomas defended the closure publicly: 'We took what we consider to be the safest possible action'
FOLLOW-UPEmail
Approximate reconstruction243 chars
LCSC update: Police have detained the individual believed to have made the threats. There is no longer a credible threat to campus. Counseling services will be available, and we will share information about Monday's schedule by Sunday evening.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Sent after Richard Sonnen, who turned 18 the day before the threats, was placed on a mental health hold at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center
Sonnen was not charged with a crime; he was held under Idaho mental-health civil commitment procedures
LCSC also coordinated with Lewiston High School, which had been threatened in the same conversation Sonnen reportedly had with his acquaintance
Context

Background

On Friday, April 20, 2007 — four days after the Virginia Tech shooting killed 32 — Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho, closed its campus after 18-year-old Richard Sonnen allegedly told an acquaintance he wanted to 'get his dad's rifle and shoot students from the clock tower' at LCSC and 'go over to the high school and kill a lot of people there too,' in what police characterized as a 'Columbine-type' threat. The acquaintance reported the comments and police took Sonnen into custody on a mental-health hold; he was not criminally charged. LCSC notified students through its Warrior Mail email accounts and a phone tree and canceled classes for the day. President Dene Thomas defended the closure publicly: 'We took what we consider to be the safest possible action.' The case is one of the earliest documented post-Virginia Tech uses of higher-education mass notification — the modern Clery Act emergency-notification rules under § 668.46(g) were still three years away, and most colleges had no SMS infrastructure.
Analysis

Key Findings

LCSC closed its campus four days after Virginia Tech, illustrating how the April 16 shooting immediately rewired threat assessment at small public colleges
Notification ran through Warrior Mail email and a phone tree — pre-SMS-mass-notification infrastructure typical of 2007
The threat was resolved through Idaho's mental-health civil commitment process rather than criminal prosecution
Outcome
Richard Sonnen was taken into custody and held on a mental health hold at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center. No weapon or attack materialized. LCSC President Dene Thomas defended the closure as 'the safest possible action' given the post-Virginia Tech climate.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    L-C student's threats lead to arrest (Lewiston Tribune)
    lmtribune.com
  2. News
    Threats shut college, high school (Spokesman-Review)
    spokesman.com
  3. Official
    Lewis-Clark State College (institution page)
    lcsc.edu
Tags
threat-of-violencepost-virginia-techidaholewistonpublic-bachelorscampus-closuremental-health-holdsmall-institutionhistorical
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion