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# Bomb threat empties SM Place
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/bomb-threat-empties-sm-place/
- Published: 2005-07-19T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T07:28:36.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Crime, Downtown, #archive-import

*Downtown a dead end amid mall bomb scare*

*By MICHAEL TITTINGER Daily Press Staff Writer*

DOWNTOWN — Much of Santa Monica became a dead-end downtown early last evening, when a bomb scare at Santa Monica Place mall prompted police to close off area streets to traffic and pedestrians.

Some 2,000 people were evacuated from the mall after police received news of multiple bomb threats and a suspicious black briefcase, left unattended, was discovered inside the Robinsons- May department store that anchors the mall at Second Street and Broadway.

According to Santa Monica Police Lt. Frank Fabrega, the mall’s security received five or six bomb threats throughout the day on Monday, finally contacting the SMPD around 4:30 p.m. when the briefcase was discovered.

Police closed off area streets to traffic and pedestrians between Ocean Avenue and Fourth Street, from Colorado Avenue to Broadway, and a quarter way up the 1400 block of the Third Street Promenade, between Broadway and Santa Monica Boulevard.

Numerous stores and eateries along the adjacent Promenade also closed shop as a safety precaution, leaving pedestrians and tourists at a loss, surrounded by closing businesses and thwarted at several turns by bright yellow police tape.

Traffic personnel assisted those whose cars were in the parking structure adjacent to Santa Monica Place, ushering them out quickly It wasn’t until 7:45 that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad deemed the briefcase wasn’t a threat, allowing businesses inside the mall to reopen.

Ali Khan, an assistant manager for Giorgio Vasari clothing, opted not to reopen following the bomb scare, as the mall was due to close by 9 p.m.

Khan said his store was the last to close shop in the mall amid the threats.

“I was with a customer, busy selling, when security walked in and told us something was going on,” he recalled. “Finally, a cop came in and said ‘You have to go.’”

Giorgio Vasari operates two stores in the mall, directly across from one another, in addition to a branch on the Third Street Promenade, from where Khan recalled the events that preceded the store closures.

“There was a whole flow of people shuffling out of the mall — exits away from Robinsons-May,” he said. “But everything was very calm, smooth.

“Maybe it was a customer who was unsatisfied with Robinsons or something.”

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/071905-01_03.jpg)

Police escorted some 2,000 people out of Santa Monica Place mall on Monday evening amid repeated bomb threats. (Photo: Carolyn Sackariason/Daily Press)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/071905-01_04.jpg)

An LA County bomb squad truck sits outside Santa Monica Place on Monday. (Photo: Alejandro Cesar Cantarero II/Daily Press)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 19, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/071905.pdf?ref=smdp.com)