School threats tied to extortion plot

Letter sent to families states email blast with bomb threat was made by someone out of state

The email blast targeting several Macomb County school districts with a bomb threat has been tied to an extortion scheme, according to a local school official.

On Monday, Anchor Bay School District Superintendent Phil Jankowski

said a threat was emailed to his district Saturday evening. Chesterfield Township police have been leading the investigation in conjunction with the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office, he added.

In a letter addressed to district parents and guardians, which has been approved for release by the police department, Jankowski released the following information.

“Thanks to the efforts of the Chesterfield Police Department, they were quickly able to identify a former student from another district that was involved based on an online relationship with someone out of state that resulted in demands for money,” Jankowski wrote in the letter.

“Once those demands were not met the person (or persons) they were interacting with sent the email threat to pressure the student into paying the demands,” he wrote.

Chesterfield Township police did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the investigation.

According to Jankowski, local, county, and federal partners involved in the investigation believe the threat was not credible.

Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham said Sunday night that several local communities had received threats of a potential bomb or explosive being placed in their building.

The threatening emails were received by school officials in the Anchor Bay School District, as well as educators in Armada, Chippewa Valley Schools in Clinton Township, and Merritt Academy in New Haven.

In the Anchor Bay district, which includes Chesterfield Township and New Baltimore in Macomb County, and parts of