A Pomona police SWAT officer was shot while serving a search warrant in San Gabriel Tuesday and remained hospitalized in "extremely critical condition," while the alleged shooter was unhurt and taken into custody.

The officer was identified as 45-year-old Shaun Diamond, Pomona Police Chief Paul J. Capraro said at a news conference Tuesday. He remained in the hospital Tuesday evening with family members by his side.

The shooting occurred just after 4 a.m. in the 100 block of San Marino Avenue, where several agencies were serving a warrant as part of a multiple-location motorcycle gang investigation, according to Pomona police. The officer was shot as he was "making entry" to the residence, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Diamond was shot in the back of the neck or head, above his vest, and taken to Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena in critical condition, police said. His family was by his side.

"The best indication right now is that he was possibly hit in the back of the head, although he was wearing a Kevlar helmet," said Eddie Hernandez of the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau.

He was described by colleagues as a "top-notch guy" who has served eight years with the Pomona Police Department.

"Right now, we just don't know how he's going to hold up," said Pomona Police Lt. Mike Keltner. "We're hoping for the best.

"He's just a wonderful human being. All of Pomona PD is pulling for him."

The shooting suspect was identified as David Martinez, 36, of San Gabriel, officials said. Martinez was the target of the warrant.

Other occupants were inside the home when the shooting happened, and Martinez's father may have been struck by gunfire  from Martinez's shotgun above his left elbow, Hernandez said. Pomona officers did not shoot back because the father was in the line of fire.

Martinez was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder on a peace officer and was being held in lieu of $4 million bail.

Martinez was previously arrested for assault with a deadly weapon and domestic violence.

The SWAT operation and investigation involved "outlaw motorcycle gangs," Keltner said. 

Neighbors said they were awakened by the violence early Tuesday.

"We heard all this commotion," said neighbor Marco Polanco. "We just all took cover, that's all we could do."

A new report finds 41 percent of high school juniors in the San Diego Unified School District are not on track to fulfill certain graduation requirements.

Read the full report here

In 2011, the school board adopted a policy that requires all graduates from the class of 2016 forward to participate and complete a sequence of courses called “A-G” requirements. A-G is just one part of overall graduation requirements, which include physical education classes, computer proficiency and other electives.

The reason behind adopting A-G requirements to ensure all students are provided the opportunity to be college-ready as measured by the University of California and California State systems. It includes two years of history, science and foreign language, three years of mathematics, four years of English, one year of visual arts and one year of an A-G course.

The district report found 59 percent students are on track to fulfill the A-G requirements. Forty-one percent, or 2,841, students are not.

In terms of specific schools, 86 percent of students at Scripps Ranch High School are on track to complete the A-G courses. On the other hand, San Diego High School’s Media Visual and Performing Arts Academy has 14 percent of its juniors on track to do the same.

Andrea Guerrero, Executive Director of Alliance San Diego, said the findings show progress. She said Alliance San Diego and other community partners partnered with the San Diego Unified School District to adopt a policy that brought A-G coursework into alignment with graduation requirements.

“We see this as an important step in the right direction. This is the first opportunity that we’ve had to see what the progress is for the class of 2016, and we now know where the work needs to be done,” Guerrero said.

Guerrero said it's important to have the support and interventions needed to help students make it to the finish line. She said attention needs to be focused on where the poor grades are distributed, what schools and demographics are most affected, and then provide necessary interventions.

“For example, if all the F grades are clumped together in a specific subject area, we need to focus in on that subject area in making sure students get the support and intervention they need and that teachers are getting the professional development they need,” she said.

“A-G” refers to seven subjects labeled A through G required for entrance to the UC and Cal State systems.

A Poway middle school class got an extra special English lesson on Tuesday afternoon: a video chat with mega superstar Taylor Swift.

Shrill choruses of “Hi, Taylor!” filled Tiffany Daher’s classroom once the pop star came on the video screen.

Twin Peaks Middle School was just one of two schools in the United States chosen to chat via Skype. It was part of a Scholastic initiative intended to promote the importance of reading and writing.

The pop star was in New York and chatted simultaneously with Twin Peaks students and fifth graders from Troy, Michigan. A group of students from New York also chatted with Swift (in person).

Swift shared about the books that influenced her songwriting and how writing shaped her career.

“I wouldn’t be a songwriter if it weren’t for books I read as a kid,” Swift told the students. Books “train your imagination to believe more exists than what you can see.”

Responding to questions about her writing, Swift said she grew up writing in a journal, noting that’s how she expressed her emotions.

“Journaling is what made me discover that I loved poetry,” she said.

Daher, a language arts teacher at Twin Peaks, said her class was chosen because of her close involvement with a Scholastic national advisory board.

Her students were brimming with excitement.

“It’s really awesome to do this,” gushed Twin Peaks student Megan Chavez. “I’m excited to see what she thinks of things” and her writing advice.

The full video chat will air here starting at 10 a.m. (PST) Wednesday.

A little girl was airlifted to the hospital Tuesday after she tumbled from a second-story window in Oceanside.

A babysitter was in the bathroom when the 6-year-old girl playing near a window fell out in the 1300 block of Buena Street at about 5:45 p.m., according to Oceanside police.

The child fell onto the concrete outside the house near a brick wall.

Emergency crews told police the girl was bleeding from her nose and mouth because of facial injuries and possible fractured bones.

She was flown to Rady Children's Hospital for very significant injuries.

Check back here for more details on this breaking news story.

A video allegedly showing jail staff’s negligence was played to the federal jury tasked with deciding if the county of San Diego was negligent in the case of an asthmatic, heroin-withdrawing inmate in their care.

The clip was one of the first pieces of evidence exhibited Tuesday in the case of Daniel Sisson, a 21-year-old heroin addict who died in the Vista Detention Facility in 2011 from asthma asphyxiation.

His family is suing the county and San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, accusing three nurses and two deputies of not following protocol and allowing Sisson’s death.

In June 2011, Sisson, a heroin addict who had seven previous trips to jail, was booked into the Vista Detention Facility for possession of a controlled substance.

His family told NBC 7 from a young age, the Cardiff by the Sea surfer suffered from asthma and a painful arthritic disease, eventually turning from prescription drugs to heroin.

“The last time he went in, we really thought he was going to get sober in there,” said Sisson’s aunt Deanna Russo. “We really thought jail was going to be good for him.”

During opening statements in court Tuesday, the family’s attorney Chris Morris told the jury Sisson started going through a withdrawal shortly after he was taken to jail. The withdrawal triggered an asthma attack, causing him to vomit ten times and slowly asphyxiate.

Morris showed surveillance video from inside the jail which he claims depicts staff being negligent as Sisson died in his cell.

“The video shows the deputies just walking by his cell not really looking in not monitoring not really doing anything not even breaking stride,” Morris said.

But the defense argued there is no evidence as to what jail staff could or could not see, whether it was apparent Sisson was dying.

According to the lawsuit, the family claims the sick man’s cell mate cried for help, but his protestations were not heeded.

Defense attorneys also say Sisson initially failed to disclose he was using illicit drugs and refused care on several occasions.

But Morris argues just hours later, Sisson admitted he was going through a withdrawal, and his asthma alone should have precluded him from being placed in the jail’s general population.

“They should have looked at him like he was a human being, not like he was something they were storing in a cage,” said Russo.

Deputies did not check on Sisson until three hours after he had died, according to the lawsuit.

The family says they hope changes are made in the monitoring of inmates and that the system finds a better way to handle drug addiction so something like this does not happen again.

“These kids are addicts; they’re not criminals. They’re drug addicts, and our system just treats them like trash,” said Russo. “He was our family, he was our baby and he’s gone.”

The trial is set to continue Wednesday.

Former baseball star Jose Canseco accidentally shot himself in the finger while cleaning what authorities say is a large-caliber handgun in his Las Vegas home Monday afternoon, police told NBC News.

Canseco shot a finger on his left hand, apparently unaware that a bullet was in the chamber, Las Vegas Metro Lt. Mark Reddon said.

"It was a serious hand injury," but not a serious medical injury, Reddon told NBC News. "There was nothing suspicious. There was no alcohol involved, just a misstep with a handgun."

Canseco began his long major league career in the 1980s playing for the Oakland Athletics, before going on to play for the Rangers, Red Sox, Yankees, White Sox and other teams.

He has admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs during his MLB career and after retiring also competed in mixed martial arts and boxing.

Check back for updates.

A rare and potentially dangerous mosquito has been found in San Diego County.

Four Aedes aegypti mosquitoes – known as “yellow fever mosquitoes” – were found in offices on Naval Base San Diego, according to county environmental health officials.

Yellow fever mosquitoes are more common on the East Coast but started appearing in California in 2013, officials said. The mosquitoes have recently been found in Commerce and Pico Rivera in Los Angeles County.

Yellow fever mosquitoes are small with black and white stripes. Unlike native California mosquitoes, these insects feed during the day. They can breed almost anywhere there’s standing water, including indoors, according to the county.

The county recommends anyone bitten by a mosquito indoors during the day should report it Vector Control at 858-694-2888.

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes can carry yellow fever, chikungunya and denuge fever. All three diseases are rare.

There hasn’t been an outbreak of yellow fever in the United States in more than a century, according to the county. However, there have been two cases of chikungunya and one case of denuge fever diagnosed in San Diego County this year. All three patients had traveled outside the country.

Yellow fever symptoms include fever, chills, severe headache and back pain. The majority of patients will have no symptoms or only minor symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To help prevent mosquito breeding, the county is urging residents to dump out anything that can hold water – such as plant saucers, buckets or wheelbarrows – and report any standing water or dead birds to Vector Control.

A man beheaded a woman, then jumped in front of a moving Long Island Rail Road train in what's being investigated as a brutal murder-suicide, law enforcement officials say. 

The officials said police found the body of a woman in her 60s outside a Farmingdale apartment complex on Secatogue Avenue Tuesday night. Her head was severed. 

The body of a man in his 30s, who investigators believe may be the woman's son, was found nearby about a mile away on a section of LIRR tracks after he apparently jumped in front of an eastbound LIRR train, according to officials. 

Passengers on the train were being loaded onto another train, and will be taken back to another station and bused to their destinations from there, officials said. 

The section of the LIRR track is expected to be closed while officials investigate.

Officials say the incident appears to be domestic, and not terror-related. 

Lawyers for a Maine nurse who was quarantined in New Jersey after returning from West Africa told the Bangor Daily News that she will not abide by health officials' recommendation that she stay quarantined for 21 days at home.

Kaci Hickox's lawyer, Steven Hyman, told the newspaper she only agreed to not going out for two days.

Hickox treated Ebola patients in Sierra Leone and shows no symptoms of the deadly virus. She was released from a New Jersey hospital on Monday after being isolated against her will.

The Maine CDC's recommendation is a 21-day self-quarantine with daily monitoring, which is more stringent than federal guidelines. However, state health officials said on Tuesday they're preparing to legally enforce Maine's "voluntary" quarantine on health care workers who've treated Ebola patients.

Northern Maine Medical Center reported earlier that Hickox had agreed to a 21-day quarantine at an undisclosed location.

Coming back to the United States after volunteering with Doctors Without Borders, Hickox was the first person forced into the state of New Jersey's mandatory quarantine at Newark Liberty International Airport for people arriving from three West African countries. She spent the weekend in a quarantine tent despite saying she never had Ebola symptoms and tested negative in a preliminary evaluation.

Stay with us as this story develops. 

Ghouls, ghosts, Abe Lincoln and an egg (?) rose from the grave to thrill San Diego State baseball spectators this weekend.

Colorfully costumed students took the bases at Tony Gwynn Stadium as the school’s baseball program held its annual Halloween game Sunday.

But horses and sumo wrestlers throwing balls wasn’t the only tricky treat awaiting the on-lookers.

A crowd of zombies crawled onto the pitcher's mound for a surprise “Thriller” flash mob.

With frightening accuracy, the group performed Michael Jackson's classic, creepy choreography, clawing with undead arms just like in the original video.

As the music wrapped up, the eerie spectres fell back to their lifeless forms across the field.

Watch the performance for yourself above.

A picture posted to Facebook is stirring up controversy at a Massachusetts high school after two high school sweethearts posed with large airsoft guns before their homecoming dance last week.

"We took them with the airsoft guns because it's our hobby, and we wanted to include them," now-suspended  Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical School student Jamie Pereira said.

The guns only shoot plastic pellets, but school officials say the Middleborough teenagers, including Pereira and Tito Velez, caused a disruption at the school.

Dr. Richard Gross, superintendent of the school district, said his problem is not with the guns. He says he defends free speech, but that he takes issue with the caption below the photo that reads "Homecoming 2014."

"When you tie that to a school event, that's something to be concerned about," said Dr. Gross.

School officials say the dance Friday was uneventful, but people Monday in school were fearful and parents were concerned.

Pereira and Velez defend themselves, saying they often play with the pellet guns with friends at local fields, and that the photo was taken by Velez's dad at home on private property. In the comments below the picture, they say they made it clear the guns were fakes.

Now they're upset with what they call a 10-day suspension and how they were allegedly treated by both police and school officials before their State Cross Country meet Monday.

"We were brought into separate rooms and then questioned by a police officer without parental consent there," Pereira said.

"They took me to an empty room, searched everything I had on me, my bag, my clothes," Velez said.

The suspended students and parents are meeting with school officials to figure out what's next on Wednesday.

NECN also put a call into Taunton Police, who said they had minimal involvement in the case. 

If you’ve checked out Google’s homepage Tuesday, you may have noticed a special tribute to La Jolla’s most famous doctor: Jonas Salk.

The inventor of the polio vaccine and founder of the Salk Institute in La Jolla would have been 100 today. Salk died in 1995.

The Google doodle gives a nod to his biggest accomplishment, depicting the scientist standing among presumably polio-free children who are holding a “Thank you, Dr. Salk!” sign.

The medical world is remembering Salk for his groundbreaking work battling polio, a viral disease that can attack the nerve cells. After his injectable vaccine came on the market, the U.S. saw a dramatic drop in polio cases in the mid-1950s.

Over the next decades, nations used his vaccine and an oral version of it to nearly eradicate the virus worldwide, though pockets of polio still exist in Afghanistan, Nigeria Pakistan, the Horn of Africa Cameroon and Syria, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say.

With the U.S. almost entirely freed from the disease, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed May 6, 1985, to be “Jonas Salk Day.”

In the 1960s, Salk established an institute in his name at the campus of UC San Diego. His goal was to “make it possible for biologists and others to work together in a collaborative environment that would encourage them to consider the wider implications of their discoveries for the future of humanity,” according to a spokeswoman for the organization.

The Salk Institute has since worked on potential new therapies and treatments for cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular disorders, brain issues and birth defects.

Students at UC San Diego staged a protest Tuesday to save the iconic Che Café.

Last week, a San Diego superior court judge ruled UCSD had the right to evict the nonprofit collective from campus.

The UCSD Graduate Student Association (GSA) voted in June to take away the Che Café’s co-op status, meaning the university would not extend its lease. The university gave the café 30 days to vacate, but it did not. Che Café supporters argue the GSA did not have the authority to make that decision and the university never gave them the chance to work out a new lease agreement.

Dozens of students marched from the co-op to the chancellor’s office, banging on buckets and pans and holding signs that read “No Eviction” and “The Che Café Will Stay.” They even stopped traffic on Gilman Drive.

Protesters planned to present the chancellor with a petition of 14,000 signatures in support of the co-op staying on campus.

During the Oct. 21 court appearance, the judge ruled the Che Café would have five days to vacate after receiving a written order. However, one week later, no court order has been signed, according to Cecilia Brennan, a volunteer attorney and member of the Che Café Support Network.

The co-op has filed a motion asking for clarification of the judge's decision. The hearing is scheduled for 8:45 a.m. Wednesday.

Originally named “Cheap Healthy Eats,” the Che Café was founded in 1980 and has hosted many high-profile musical acts, including Nirvana, Jimmy Eat World, Billy Corgan, Bon Iver, Bright Eyes and Green Day.

A sweep of the Sleep Train Amphitheatre on Friday netted 41 alcohol-related arrests for Chula Vista police.

Officers conducted the operation during a concert by country singer Luke Bryan, canvasing the theater’s parking lots on the prowl for underage drinkers. They came up with 39 arrests of minors age 17-20 and two other arrests of adults furnishing alcohol to minors.

The penalty for furnishing alcohol to minors is a minimum of $1,000 and 24 hours of community service. A minor in possession of alcohol faces a $250 fine and 24 hours of community service. Both are considered misdemeanors and all those arrested were released with citations.

According to the Chula Vista Police Department, the operation was funded by the California Alcoholic Beverage Control through the department's Grant Assistance Program.

A sexually violent predator with a history of violating parole and the rules of the state's conditional release program may be placed in Borrego Springs.

Gary Snavely, 49, was convicted in 1987 of molesting two Orange County girls under 10. He served three years in prison but violated the conditions of his parole and sent back behind bars.

Then, after his release in 1996, the convicted pedophile failed to register as a sex offender. For that offense, Snavely spent 16 months behind bars.

Once designated as a sexually violent predator, he was committed to the state hospital.

When the county approved his request for conditional release in 2008, Snavely was ordered to return to the state hospital after several months for medication misuse according to county officials.

Judge Louis R. Hanoian granted a second petition for release at a hearing in August.

If approved, Snavely will be placed at 3184 Club Circle East #13, Borrego Springs, CA 92004.

A public hearing will be held December 5 at 9:00 a.m. in Department 54 of the San Diego Superior Court downtown for Borrego Springs residents to address the court regarding the proposed release.

Comments will also be accepted until Nov. 10 by emailing sdsafe@sdsheriff.org, calling (858) 495-3619 or sending a written letter to:

SVP Release/SAFE Task Force
9425 Chesapeake Drive
San Diego, CA 92123

A 17-year-old was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon in connection to the stabbing of a fellow teen in Vista on Sunday night.

The 16-year-old boy said he was stabbed after refusing to give the teen his skateboard. However, investigators now say the suspect also confronted the boy about befriending the suspect’s ex-girlfriend.

The boy said he had just picked up dinner and was riding his skateboard home around 9 p.m. when he was confronted, deputies said.

The teenager was found injured on W. East Drive west of N Santa Fe Avenue around 9 p.m. He was taken by ambulance to Palomar Medical Center with a non-life threatening injuries, officials said.

Sheriff’s deputies the victim is in stable condition and is expected to recover from his injuries.

The case will be evaluated by the Juvenile District Attorney’s Office.

A sea lion tangled up in fishing gear was rescued using a rarely used method — a sedation dart, according to the SeaWorld rescue team.

The distressed adult female was spotted on the Quivira Basin bait barge in Mission Bay Monday evening, surrounded by fellow sea lions. Fishing line was digging deeply into the back of her neck.

With the permission of the National Marine Fisheries, the federal agency that oversees wild marine mammals, the rescue team injected the 156 ½ pound animal with a sedative.

SeaWorld says it was forced to use sedation because of the mammal’s size and location.

As she relaxed, the team cut the fishing line off her neck and took her to the park’s rescue center as she rehabilitates.

There, caretakers discovered a neck wound above her shoulder blade, but aside from that, she is in good health, they say.

Park workers will monitor her for a few weeks until she is healthy enough to return to the wild.

This is the latest in what SeaWorld says is a disturbing trend of abuse against sea lions, whether intentional or not.

On Sunday, a 10-foot fishing gaff was found lodged in the shoulder of a sea lion in La Jolla – the fourth in a string of similar cases within the last year and a half.

In the past year, at least eight sea lions have been shot and many had to be euthanized, SeaWorld says.

The cases have been reported to the National Marine Fisheries, but a spokesperson for that agency told NBC 7 the incidents are hard to investigate because it is difficult to determine when it happened and who is responsible.

A Massachusetts man accused of fleeing child rape charges and going on a nationwide crime spree that authorities say included at least six sexual assaults was apprehended Tuesday after crashing a car into a New York river.

Gregory Lewis of Southbridge was arrested shortly before midnight Tuesday in the village of Fort Edward.

Police say a New York State Police trooper observed Lewis driving with a missing license plate. When the officer attempted to stop the vehicle, Lewis fled.

Police received calls that Lewis crashed his vehicle into a river, emerged from the river and pulled a gun on a witness to the crash. Police arrived on scene and took Lewis into custody.

A firearm recovered from Lewis matches the description of one he’s accused of stealing from a family member in September.

Lewis was initially arrested in Massachusetts back in August for statutory rape of a child under 14, ordered to stay under house arrest.

Since cutting his GPS ankle bracelet and fleeing the state on Sept. 15, police say, Lewis is suspected of committing six or more sexual assaults in different states.

Ten days after he allegedly fled, police say Lewis returned to Massachusetts, broke into his stepfather's home, tied him up and stole a gun.

Police in Denver announced earlier Sunday that Lewis was wanted in Colorado for sexual assault, kidnapping and aggravated robbery.

Officials in North Carolina said they believe Lewis kidnapped, robbed and assaulted a woman in Charlotte on Sept. 23.

Lewis is believed to have been in Denver earlier this month. Police say he was in Portland, Oregon, around Oct. 13. The next day, officials say he was in Boise, Idaho. On Oct. 17, according to police, he was in Salt Lake City, Utah.

He was held without bail at the Washington County jail in New York and arraigned in that county. Massachusetts State Police said he is expected to be in New York at least until Friday.

The investigation into his other alleged crimes is continuing.

A broken record, in spite of what the common phrase suggests, does not play over and over again.

A real broken record does not play at all.

And two broken records is exactly what Matt Skryja is holding in his hands.

"There is a radial crack through both of them," Matt says staring at the light shining through one of the cracks. "They are both unplayable."

Still, thanks to technology developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and being used at the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Massachusetts, unplayable no longer means unlistenable.

IRENE, as the technology is called, creates a digital map of the surface of old audio recordings, then translates that image into the sound a hypothetical needle would have created had one been able to travel across the record. Over the past decade, IRENE has been used to recover audio from some of the oldest sound recordings in the world.

Matt, however, is more excited about hearing what comes from his, 70-year-old recordings. That's because the voice on the two, 78 rpm records is that of his grandfather, Ray.

"I think I'm going to have to hold my breath," Matt says. "It's going to be emotional."

Lt. Ray Skryja had just returned from serving in the European Theater of World War II in 1944 when he was interviewed by a radio station in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.

The interview was recorded on the two records.

Ray, a bombardier and navigator aboard a B-24 "Liberator," had completed 50 bombing missions over southern Europe before returning home. After the war Ray married, went back to school to become a pharmacist, and eventually moved to the Bay Area.

He died when Matt was just eight-years-old.

Matt says as a boy he was fascinated by all the pictures of his grandfather in uniform he would see in his grandmother's house. He says he would love to flip through them and imagine the adventures Ray had had. 

"When I got older," Matt says, "my curiosity when beyond that. I wanted to know the stories behind the pictures."

So Matt spent years researching Ray's military service. While working as a television reporter in Fresno, Matt even produced a two part series detailing Ray's war years. Matt tracked down and interviewed surviving crew members to get details, still, one voice was always missing.

"The voice of my grandfather," Matt says, "I never had it for those stories that I told."

Which is why Matt was so thrilled, earlier this year, to uncover those 78's. They had been found while cleaning out Matt's grandmother's house in preparation for a move. Matt had heard rumors in the past from family members about the records existence, but assumed they had been lost years ago.

They still were, in a way.

Because of the cracks, even if Matt tracked down an old record player, they couldn't be played. Still, Matt wouldn't give up. Doing research on-line, he learned about IRENE and how it was being used at NEDCC.

He contacted the facility and, excited about the opportunity to preserve history, they agreed to take on his project.

Matt shipped the records east in August and within a matter of weeks, NEDCC sent to him the audio they had recovered.

Matt and his father huddled around a laptop earlier this month to listen to what they had. Through the pops and static one would expect to hear in a recording of such an age, they were able to clearly hear Ray answer the interviewers questions.

Ray, sounding much younger of course than either of the two men remember, recounted details of his postings and his missions overseas. It is clear throughout the interview Ray was being careful not to divulge too much sensitive information, as the war was still going on at the time of the interview.

The interview lasted for more than ten minutes, and while it may not have contained all the stories Matt had longed for years to hear, it was enough to leave a smile on his face.

"This is precious, right?" Matt says. "It's finally nice to be able to hear it, and pass it on." 

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has ordered an increase in security at various federal buildings nationwide in response to general threats. Those threats include last week’s shooting in Ottawa and the continuing threats from ISIS. A statement from Johnson read in part:

“I have directed the Federal Protective Service to enhance its presence and security at various U.S. Government buildings in Washington DC and other major cities and locations around the country. The precise actions we are taking and the precise locations at which we will enhance security is law-enforcement sensitive, will vary and shift from location to location, and will be continually re-evaluated.”

NBC 7 spoke to Professor Eric Frost, the director of San Diego State University’s Homeland Security Graduate Program. His current students include more than a dozen homeland security employees.

“This completely makes sense because of the potential of what could take place especially on days like Veteran's Day,” Frost said. “This also makes sense because ISIS formally came out a number of weeks ago that they'd attack U.S. military and their families.”

In addition to threats by ISIS, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson confirmed in his statement:

“The reasons for this action are self-evident: the continued public calls by terrorist organizations for attacks on the homeland and elsewhere, including law enforcement and other government officials, and the acts of violence targeted at government personnel and installations in Canada and elsewhere recently.”

Frost said the threats may target more than federal buildings, but the DHS can only order such precautions over what it has jurisdiction over. He believes our military may be implementing similar heightened security. NBC 7 reached out to local military officials. We received this response from MCAS Miramar:

"We do not discuss details or specifics with regard to security plans or procedures. We randomly alter our security posture to keep it from being stagnant and predictable."

Frost said there is something we can all do to protect ourselves from these threats.

“Talk to your neighbor, watch each other like neighborhood watch. Pay attention to each other so you help other people.”

Sounds simple but he argued that's what it takes to stand against fear mongering and terrorism and stand up for protecting one another.