City still on high alert

CLOVIS — Telephone threats across Clovis finally ended about 4 a.m. Thursday with no violence associated with them, city officials said.

Police had not provided any additional information by 4 p.m. Thursday.

Dozens of area businesses, including Plains Regional Medical Center, reported receiving threats on Wednesday night or Thursday morning.

Many closed, at least temporarily, and the hospital locked all entrances and exits except for the emergency room. On Thursday, hospital officials said the facility was open, but the only access remained through the ER.

The Eastern New Mexico News was among businesses that received telephone threats. A male caller, his voice disguised, told Copy Editor Jenna Zamie that “we’re going to shoot people tomorrow,” meaning Thursday.

The anonymous caller also said “bomb threats and shootings were just the beginning,” Zamie said.

The threats seemed tied to Monday’s shooting at Clovis-Carver Public Library where two people died and four more were injured.

The caller referenced shooting suspect Nathaniel Jouett, a high school sophomore, and said he “isn’t the only one.”

Clovis schools Superintendent Jody Balch said the threats led to reduced attendance at school for the second day this week. About half of Clovis High School’s 1,600 students went to class on Tuesday after the library shooting, Balch said, but most returned on Wednesday. Thursday’s attendance was more than Tuesday, but less than Wednesday, Balch said.

He said Espanola’s high school volleyball team opted not to play its scheduled match at Clovis on Thursday. “We assume it’s because of the threats,” Balch said.

A defiant Balch said the schools would not close in the face of the threats.

“Allowing our campus to be run by a couple of teenagers, or whoever this is, (making terroristic threats) is ridiculous,” Balch said.

The superintendent said police have been patrolling all the schools since Tuesday and will be back again today.