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Ohio School Security Guard Arrested For Making North College Hill Bomb Threats

By Tara Dodrill
Published on: 00:44 PST, Mar 24, 2016

North College Hill School District security guard Christopher Darnell (identified as Christopher Files and Christopher Darnell Files by some news sources) was arrested for making a bomb threat to blow up the Cincinnati area school. Files called in the school bomb threats, which were traced back to his cell phone, twice this week.

Students at North College Hill were evacuated after the bomb threats. Police officers were initially unaware of Christopher Darnell’s whereabouts after the potentially deadly threats were made but ultimately located the school security guard, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. Police officers swept the building for bombs after Darnell’s arrest and did not find the presence of any explosive material.

The 20-year-old school resource officer and security guard was arrested on two counts of inducing panic, which is a second-degree felony. Darnell is currently being held in the local jail.

North College Hill Police Chief Ryan Schrand told local reporters that his department used GPS tracking of Christopher Darnell’s cell phone to locate him inside the middle school building. The officers located his cell phone after a brief pat-down. The Ohio school security guard reportedly confessed to making the bomb threats.

“When we pinged the phone and suddenly it’s here in the school and around the school, and I’ve taken everything away from teachers and kids, well, who is there left?” Chief Schrand said. “And I started tracking it, calling the phone and finding it myself. That’s when I narrowed it down to him.”

According to police reports, Darnell used his cell phone to call in a bomb threat at the North College Hill High School on Monday. The following day, the school security guard called the elementary school and issued a second bomb threat from the same cell phone. Darnell Files reportedly threatened to blow up the school building and anyone who remained inside if he was not given the money he demanded.

North College Hill School District Superintendent Gary Gellert said that although they felt “95 percent sure” staff and students were not in any real dangers due to the bomb threats, they still opted for the multiple evacuations out of an abundance of precaution.

“Evil is not going to win here. That was an evil act. With everything going on in the world. Evil’s not going to win here. We’ll be open [Thursday] I hope parents and kids feel comfortable and safe. I understand otherwise,” Superintendent Gellert added. “We’ll teach the kids and do the best we can. It’s safe. He’s locked up.”

Gellert also noted how different the world is today than it once was. The North College Hill bomb threat was called in on a cell phone and not written on “pieces of paper or on the bathroom stall” as they once were, the superintendent said to WCPO.

Christopher Darnell Files was employed as a security guard at the Ohio school district for only two weeks before the bomb threats were called in. The Cincinnati-area school district decided the hiring of a second security guard was necessary after a fight broke out among students several weeks ago.

Christopher Darnell had passed a background check and had been employed with a private security services agency since the fall of 2013. The district has also removed private security guards from school buildings for the rest of the week and will instead utilize the services of police officers to patrol the school. Students at the Ohio school district will be on spring break next week.

What do you think about the North College Hill bomb threat called in by the Ohio school security guard?

[Image via Shutterstock.com]

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