UPDATE (5:05 p.m.): FBI field office director James W. McJunkin just briefed the press regarding the letters, and have said that they have collected all the packages which were sent to schools in the District. McJunkin said that the FBI has “no reason to believe” that the letters contained a hazardous material. “Nothing that we’ve tested so far has turned out to be a hazardous substance,” said McJunkin. McJunkin added that the investigation had expanded to 25 letters “and counting.”
UPDATE (3:20 p.m.): Make that 12 schools: NBC4 reports that Anacostia High School (1601 16th Street SE), Burroughs Elementary School (1820 Monroe Street NE), Marie Reed Elementary School (2200 Champlain Street NW) and Spingarn High School (2500 Benning Road NE) have also received letters, and that the substance in at least one of them was cornstarch. A source at Lafayette has told DCist that the substance found in the letter sent to that school was potato starch. All DCPS mail rooms have been placed on lockdown while the investigation proceeds.
UPDATE (3:00 p.m.): With another letter discovered at Ballou High School (3401 4th Street SE), the number of schools who have received suspicious deliveries today is up to eight. Again, there have been no injuries reported, and the FBI has already cleared three of the schools of any hazard.
UPDATE (2:20 p.m.): Authorities are starting to clear out from Ronald Brown after a HazMat crew found no harmful substance. WAMU’s Patrick Madden notes that the FBI is taking the lead in the investigations and “authorities say they have pretty good idea what [the material] is and poses no immediate hazard.” No injuries have been reported at any of the schools affected at this point, but two more letters has been reported at Hamilton Molten Academy (1401 Brentwood Parkway NE) and at School Without Walls Senior High School (2130 G Street NW).
Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier may not have experienced a spike in phone calls about suspicious activity since the death of Osama bin Laden, but the District’s emergency personnel sure have been busy dealing with plenty of potentially hazardous materials today. Authorities are investigating five letters with white powder inside which were received at District schools across the city today — first at Terrell Elementary School (3301 Wheeler Rd SE), then at Ronald Brown Middle School (4800 block of Meade Street NE) and Powell Elementary School (1350 Upshur Street NW). NBC4 reports that Martin Luther King Elementary School (3401 4th Street SE) and Lafayette Elementary School (5701 Broad Branch Road NW) have also received such letters.
The substance found at Terrell was deemed non-hazardous, but investigations at the other schools are ongoing; two people at Brown have been evaluated by medical personnel and students at that school have been evacuated.
