Update: Bomb threat at Northern California prison followed alleged employee shooting

A High Desert State Prison employee is on leave amid allegations he shot another prison employee Sunday in Susanville.

On Monday, someone made a bomb threat to the same prison, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Dana Simas confirmed in an email.

“It has not yet been determined if the two incidents are related,” Simas said.

Simas confirmed Tuesday that there was an “incident involving two off-duty, non-peace officer” employees at the Lassen County institution.

Simas declined to identify the employees involved or provide more details on the incident, deferring to the Lassen County Sheriff’s Department. The Sheriff’s Department deferred to the Susanville Police Department, which did not return multiple calls on Tuesday.

Officers responded to reports of a shooting in uptown Susanville around 8 p.m. Sunday, according to a press release the police department posted on Facebook Tuesday evening.

They found someone who had been shot several times but was in stable condition, according to the release.

“It was determined the shooting was domestic violence-related,” the release said.

Hours later, the release said, police arrested Kenneth Hunter, 63, a prison store supervisor at High Desert.

Hunter is being held on attempted homicide charges, with a $500,000 bail, according to the Lassen County jail. Hunter was also charged with “several” other felonies, but the release doesn’t identify them.

Simas said the corrections department coordinated with the Reno Police Department to respond to the bomb threat.

They found “no evidence of bombs and don’t believe the institution is in any danger,” Simas said in the email.

A prison employee who requested anonymity for fear of employment retaliation said the bomb threat was made early Monday morning and the prison was on lockdown until around 4 p.m.

The employee said there was a police presence Sunday at Hunter’s home.