Capitol Annex Swing Space evacuated after arrival of suspicious package, California officials say

The California Capitol Annex Swing Space was evacuated Thursday evening after a suspicious package was delivered, according to memos sent by state Senate and Assembly officials. Authorities tested the package and determined its contents were not dangerous, and the evacuation was lifted.

The package “contained a threat that it contained Anthrax,” according to memos obtained by The Sacramento Bee sent shortly after 5 p.m. by Assembly Chief Administrative Officer Lia Lopez and Secretary of the Senate Erika Contreras. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office is located at the Swing Space, 1021 O St. in downtown Sacramento.

Izzy Gardon, a Newsom spokesperson, said in a statement that a team of specialists tested the substance and that it was not anthrax “or dangerous.” The package was intercepted in the building’s mail room, the statement said.

State senators, Assemblymembers and their staffs evacuated the building, which is just south of the main Capitol grounds, “out of an abundance of caution,” the memos said. Another memo around 6 p.m. gave lawmakers and their staffs the all clear to return to the building.

A call to the California Highway Patrol, which has jurisdiction over the Capitol grounds and the Capitol Annex Swing Space, was not immediately returned.

Along with the CHP, the Sacramento Fire Department and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services responded to the incident.

Newsom was in Italy on Thursday after speaking at the Vatican Climate Summit this week.

Kristina Bas Hamilton, United Domestic Workers director of state government affairs, was attending a meeting of the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services when the evacuation took place. She said attendees were delivering public comment when someone whispered something in the ear of the chair, Sen. Caroline Menjivar, D-San Fernando Valley.

Menjivar paused the meeting, and attendees were asked to leave the building a few minutes later. Hamilton called the situation “extraordinary,” saying she’d never seen a committee meeting abruptly end like that.

People leaving the building were not initially aware of the anthrax threat, she said: “There was just a lot of like, ‘what’s going on?’” Hamilton said those around her remained “pretty cool, calm and collected.”

“I was like, ‘That can’t be true,’” Hamilton said of the anthrax threat. “Is this, like, 2000?”

She said she hoped it was just a prank and not some kind of escalation of political violence.