Campus Alert Archive
CSUF

Eight-Hour Lockdown: Cal State Fullerton Sealed Off as Riverside Pawn Shop Robbers Crash Onto Campus

CApolice activityemergency notificationmedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

At approximately 3:50 PM PST on Wednesday, December 12, 2012, a high-speed pursuit of five armed robbery suspects ended when their getaway car crashed into a student's vehicle at Nutwood Avenue and Folino Drive on the edge of the Cal State Fullerton campus. The suspects had robbed Empire Jewelry Pawn Shop in Moreno Valley, shooting the clerk four times. As they fled on foot across campus, CSUF police initiated an eight-hour lockdown with helicopter floodlights, SWAT teams, and K-9 units searching the campus building-by-building during the height of finals week.

Alerts
3
Response
10 min
Killed
—
Injured
—
Institution
California State University, Fullerton
Public Masters · CA
~38,000 studentsTitan Alert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

3 messages in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTSMS
Approximate reconstruction196 chars
Titan Alert: Armed suspects on campus. Shelter in place immediately. Lock doors, stay away from windows. Do not leave your location. Police activity in progress. Monitor fullerton.edu for updates.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Issued within about 10 minutes of the suspects' getaway car crashing at Nutwood and Folino on December 12, 2012
The timing during finals week meant thousands of students were either taking exams or studying in the library — peak shelter-in-place density
CSUF's Titan Alert system delivers SMS, email, and voice; this initial message went through all channels simultaneously
UPDATESMS
Approximate reconstruction262 chars
Titan Alert Update: Campus remains on lockdown. Police, SWAT, and K-9 units are conducting building-by-building searches for armed robbery suspects. Continue to shelter in place. Do not attempt to leave buildings. Final exams scheduled for tonight are cancelled.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Issued as helicopter floodlights began sweeping the campus in coordination with the ground search
The cancellation of evening final exams during the lockdown affected hundreds of students mid-test
Two suspects were apprehended during this phase of the search by Riverside County Sheriff's deputies
ALL CLEARSMS
Approximate reconstruction288 chars
Titan Alert: The campus lockdown has been lifted. All buildings have been searched and cleared. Two suspects in custody; additional suspects remain at large but are not believed to be on campus. Classes will resume on regular schedule Thursday, December 13. Counseling services available.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Lockdown lifted after approximately 8 hours of building-by-building searches
The honest acknowledgement that suspects 'remain at large but are not believed to be on campus' is unusually candid — most all-clears assert full resolution
Three suspects ultimately remained at large at the time of the all-clear; one was caught two weeks later 30 miles away, and one remains unidentified
Context

Background

California State University, Fullerton enrolls approximately 38,000 students on its 236-acre Fullerton campus in northern Orange County. On the afternoon of December 12, 2012 — during finals week — five suspects who had just robbed Empire Jewelry Pawn Shop in Moreno Valley and shot the clerk four times led police on a high-speed pursuit through Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, and Orange counties. The chase ended at approximately 3:50 PM PST when the getaway car crashed into a student's vehicle at Nutwood Avenue and Folino Drive, on the edge of the CSUF campus. The suspects fled on foot, prompting CSUF police to issue Titan Alert lockdown notifications that locked down the entire campus for approximately 8 hours. Two suspects — Davine Banks and Jerome Allen — were apprehended near campus during the search; a third, Traevon Vidaud, was caught later. Two additional suspects fled south and evaded capture initially; one was caught two weeks later 30 miles away, and the fifth remains unidentified. The incident is notable both for the scale of the response — SWAT, K-9, helicopter floodlights — and for occurring during finals week, when thousands of students were trapped mid-exam.
Analysis

Key Findings

An eight-hour lockdown during finals week affected thousands of students mid-exam — a worst-case timing scenario
The all-clear's acknowledgement that suspects remained at large (but off campus) is unusually candid for a campus alert
The incident demonstrated Titan Alert's capacity to sustain multi-hour shelter-in-place communications with periodic updates
Bordering Nutwood Avenue makes CSUF unusually vulnerable to off-campus pursuits spilling onto the campus footprint
Outcome
Two suspects (Davine Banks and Jerome Allen) apprehended near campus during lockdown. Three suspects fled and were caught over following days/weeks. The pawn shop clerk survived. No injuries on campus. Lockdown lifted after approximately 8 hours; classes resumed Thursday, December 13.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Student Paper
    Lockdown ends, two suspects still at large — Daily Titan
    dailytitan.com
  2. national media
    California State University Fullerton Locked Down as Police Search for Suspects — ABC News
    abcnews.go.com
  3. News
    All Clear: CSU Fullerton Lockdown Lifted — NBC Los Angeles
    nbclosangeles.com
  4. News
    3 Plead Not Guilty in Robbery-Pursuit That Led to Fullerton Lockdown — NBC Southern California
    nbclosangeles.com
  5. Source
    Questions remain a year after the Cal State Fullerton lockdown
    tworden.com
Tags
lockdownpolice-activitymanhuntarmed-suspectscaliforniacsucal-state-fullertontitan-alertfinals-weekpursuit
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion