Before a campus forum regarding last week’s on-campus shooting started Tuesday, EC Police Chief Michael Trevis said the former student who allegedly threatened community members last semester will either walk or the case will go forward to trial.

It was said at the last court date for 35-year-old James Lemus that if the case moves forward to trial, it’ll start at the end of February. The pretrial date is Feb. 5 at Torrance Courthouse.

Lemus is accused of telling Veterans Center employee Miriam Jauregui in September that he was going to kill community members, naming Vice President of Academic Affairs Francisco Arce and including “the teacher that said (he) was harassing her.”

According to ECPD Sergeant Jeffrey Lewis’ police report included in a temporary restraining order (TRO), Lemus told Jauregui that “he was going to kill the Administrators of El Camino College, and named Dr Arce as one of them; he was going to create a massacre at the schools library lawn like the Santa Barbara shooting; and he was going to kill the parents of the children walking around on the campus, tie them up to pole’s (sic) or a wall and rip them to pieces.”

At a preliminary hearing in November, Jauregui said during her testimony she was “traumatized” from what Lemus told her during his hour to hour and a half talk with her near her office, in which he allegedly made the threats and talked about his childhood.

The first TRO protected Arce, his workplace, home and vehicle. The second, granted just days after the first, protected English instructor Leeanne Bergeron, who Lemus had a class with in the past, and “all employees of the El Camino Community College District.”

This week, Deputy DA Patrick O’Crowley said in a voicemail that next Thursday, he and public defender Jonathan Cruz “are going to talk about discovery of evidence that we’re going to give each other before the trial starts. I think the defense has filed a motion.”

For the full story on the threats Lemus is accused of making and a timeline of events, go here.