Law enforcement agencies beefed up their presence at Metro stations Tuesday in response to a threat received from abroad to detonate an explosive device at the Metro Red Line’s Universal City Station.
Investigators were working to determine the credibility of the threat, which was relayed to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, FBI Assistant Director in Charge Deirdre Fike said at a news conference Monday at the federal building in Westwood, where the FBI’s Los Angeles field office is located.
Authorities were warned of a threatened attack on the Universal City station, located along Lankershim Boulevard across from Universal Studios, according to Fike, who was joined at the news conference by Sheriff Jim McDonnell, Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck and L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti.
“The threat is imminent as it’s related to (Tuesday),” Beck said. “It’s very specific as was stated, the Red Line at the Universal city Station off-ramp there, but the credibility (of the threat) still needs to be vetted out.”
FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said in remarks reported by the Daily News that the bureau’s international partners were made aware of the threat by a male caller in a foreign country who “stated that the attacker would detonate something at the station.”
Given the timing, the threat’s credibility could not be fully determined before Tuesday, so law enforcement, acting out of an abundance of caution, beefed up uniformed and undercover patrols, planned to deploy bomb-sniffing dogs and released information to the public about the threat, officials said.
The added patrols will be evident to anyone using the Metro rail system.
Garcetti spoke with reporters about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday as he prepared to ride the rails as a show of confidence to fellow riders.
“Please go about your business today,” Garcetti said.
He urged anyone seeing something suspicious to call (877) A-THREAT.
Earlier, he advised Southlanders not to be alarmed at the beefed-up security measures.
“… People will see a heightened security presence at some of the stations, police patrols at Metro stations and other places (Tuesday), but don’t let those frighten you. Those are there for your protection, and we meet threats with every possible precaution that we can.
When someone says they want to cause harm to Angelenos, we pull together and make sure that it is nothing more than a threat and show force to make sure that anybody who would seek to inflict harm is met by the great law enforcement officials that we have here.”
The timing and specificity of the threat also prompted officials to share the information with the public.
McDonnell urged residents to stay calm but remain vigilant.
“This could be real, it could be a hoax,” McDonnell said. “But we must remain calm but vigilant. And we’re asking the public to take the same precautions they would take on any other day.
As far as actions we’re taking, what you don’t see is just as important as what you will see. You will see … an increased uniformed presence especially at transit stations where we also deploy our K-9 explosive detection teams. We’ll have undercover operations under way as well.”
Officials repeated the mantra, “If you see something, say something,” while urging people to go about their lives but to contact authorities if they notice something that doesn’t seem right.
Residents can call Metro’s Transit Watch Hotline at (888) 950-7233 or notify the agency through the Transit Watch app, which can be downloaded from www.transitwatchla.org/app. In addition, they can call (877) A-THREAT.
Also, people can download the LAPD’s iWatchLA app from the department’s website at www.lapdonline.org.
