Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, was evacuated while visiting a high school in Washington for an event to honor Black History Month.
Doug Emhoff, left, was whisked out of an event at Dunbar High School in Northwest Washington on Tuesday.
WASHINGTON — Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, was evacuated from a high school in the capital on Tuesday after a bomb threat.
Katie Peters, a spokeswoman for Mr. Emhoff, said that the U.S. Secret Service “was made aware of a security threat” at Dunbar High School, where Mr. Emhoff was meeting with students and faculty members for an event honoring Black History Month.
“Mr. Emhoff is safe and the school has been evacuated,” Ms. Peters wrote on Twitter. “We are grateful to Secret Service and D.C. Police for their work.”
Moments before the @SecondGentleman was ushered out of the room by Secret Service due to a bomb threat here at Dunbar High School. A spokesperson for D.C. public schools just confirmed to us it was a bomb threat, and the school has now been evacuated. pic.twitter.com/KLr3wgnymO
— Austin Landis (@_AustinLandis) February 8, 2022
Several minutes into Mr. Emhoff’s visit to the school, he was escorted out by a Secret Service agent, who was heard saying something along the lines of “we have to go” before ushering Mr. Emhoff away.
Students and staff members were then evacuated safely, Enrique Gutierrez, the press secretary for D.C. Public Schools, told reporters.
Mr. Gutierrez said that there had been a bomb threat, and that school officials and the police had taken the “precaution of evacuating everybody” from the school, which is in the Truxton Circle neighborhood of Northwest Washington.
“I think everyone is safe,” he said. “The building is clear. But I don’t have any specific details at this moment.”
Ashan M. Benedict, the Metropolitan Police Department’s executive assistant chief, told reporters that a call had been placed to the school’s front desk around 2:15 p.m. The caller announced a bomb threat and gave people 10 minutes to evacuate, and Mr. Emhoff’s security detail removed him at 2:18 p.m., the chief said.
Source: nytimes.com
