On March 26, the security office was alerted to a threatening e-mail message in the college’s portal to Joe White, professor and chair of the philosophy department.
The e-mail said that a certain individual was being paid to kill White. It told White he could pay $15,000 in order to spare his life, and that him and his family were being “closely watched” and to not contact the police.
City College called in Brandon Lovelace, a network specialist at the Information Technology Department, to track the e-mail. He discovered that it might have been a scam.
White has been on sabbatical since fall 2007 through spring of this year, and could not be reached for comment.
Due to the severity of the e-mail, security contacted the Santa Barbara Police Department, and they have turned the case over to the FBI.
On Feb. 28, a threatening e-mail was sent to a UCSB chemistry professor. The University of California Police Department conducted an investigation to determine the suspect, learning it was a former UCSB student who no longer lives in Santa Barbara.
On March 17, the suspect, Arash Shamsian, was arrested at LAX, after he cooperated with authorities and flew in to the US from Mexico to turn himself in, according to the Daily Nexus Web site.
