Suspect in Hoax Gun Threat Case Faces 11 Felony Counts

A Monrovia man suspected of making threatening phone calls to a series of Southland schools, a hospital and a police station was charged Thursday with nearly a dozen felonies.

Gerardo Cortez, 26, made his initial court appearance this afternoon but did not enter a plea. He remains in custody in lieu of $250,000 bail pending arraignment Oct. 4 at the West Covina courthouse on six counts of making criminal threats and five counts of falsely reporting an emergency.

Prosecutors say Cortez was convicted in June for making a phony bomb threat.

The latest case stems from a series of threats Cortez allegedly made on Sept. 9-12, with the most recent targeting Arcadia High School, which received an anonymous call saying someone had a gun on the campus.

On Sept. 10, Northview Intermediate School and adjacent Duarte High School, which are on the same campus, were placed on lockdown.

On Sept. 9, the Covina Police Department received a call around 1 p.m. from an anonymous male who said he was at "Citrus Medical Center" -- there's no hospital by that name -- and had an AK-47 "and was going to start shooting people."

A similar telephone call shut down a middle school in Monrovia about the same time.

Cortez was arrested about 4 p.m. Tuesday at his home, following an investigation involving the FBI, Arcadia, Covina and Monrovia police departments, sheriff's Temple Station, Major Crimes Bureau and Joint Terrorism Task Force.

- City News Service