WINONA, Minn. – Saint Mary’s University went into lockdown with morning classes cancelled in response to an anonymous email threat to shoot up the campus. Police began a lengthy subpoena process to trace the source through the online service provider. Whether the threat was credible was not determined immediately, police said. It did not seem the threat was aimed at Saint Mary’s larger graduate-level non-residential operations in the Twin Cities. The Winona campus on Terrace Heights on Winona’s West End has 890 students, almost all of whom live on-campus in dorms. Police described the message as a lengthy, rambling, incoherent rant. One officer described it as “word salad.” The beef seemed to be that Saint Mary’s had rejected an application for admission. It mentioned an ex-wife but her relevance was muddled in the inchoate ramble. Of particular alarm at Terrace Heights was a reference to staff as a target, including one person cited by name, police said. The email was received about 3:30 a.m., but no one at the insular campus notified police until 5.
