Employees working inside the historic West Wing of the California State Capitol were told to leave, while Senate employees working in the Historic Capitol Building were directed to work remotely for the rest of the day Friday, and construction crews were pulled off the adjacent Annex site after a threat was made near the construction zone. The California Highway Patrol moved in to assess the situation in Sacramento.
Threat Prompts Swift Response From CHP
Employees were evacuated from the historic West Wing of the Capitol, while construction crews were asked to leave the nearby Annex site, according to an email from officials cited by CBS Sacramento. The California Highway Patrol assessed the threat and inspected the area Friday, and officials said there was no reason to believe the threat was credible. Even so, Senate staff were directed to work remotely for the rest of the day while construction workers were evacuated from the Annex site, according to a separate report from ABC10.
Not everyone on campus was sent home. Employees working in the Legislative Office Building and the 1021 O Street building were unaffected by the evacuation and were allowed to remain inside throughout the day, per the CBS Sacramento report. That distinction mattered: those offices house the bulk of day-to-day legislative business while the West Wing and the active construction site next door were treated as the areas of concern.
Why Swing Space Stayed Open
State lawmakers and executive staff relocated in late 2021 to the newly built $430 million Swing Space building at 1021 O Street, where staff were allowed to remain inside during Friday's incident. The O Street building was constructed specifically to house legislative operations while the historic Capitol Annex undergoes a multi-year renovation, which is why staff there were never asked to leave even as the West Wing and the construction site next door were cleared.
That construction site carries its own price tag and timeline. As of July 2026, the $1.1 billion Capitol Annex reconstruction project had reached the phase of installing interior drywall and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, with $668 million spent toward a Fall 2027 completion date, according to the California State Assembly. Project leaders reported in May 2026 that construction was 55 percent complete after logging one million worker hours, while identifying an estimated $98 million potential cost overrun that they planned to absorb without asking for additional legislative appropriations, per ABC10's earlier coverage of the project.
A Recurring Pattern At The Capitol
Friday's evacuation echoes previous security scares at the Sacramento complex. On December 6, 2024, the Capitol and surrounding legislative buildings were fully evacuated for several hours after an emailed threat, with California Highway Patrol officers clearing the campus at 12:30 p.m. without finding an active threat, according to KQED. Hoodline reported on that earlier email threat evacuation at the time.
In April 2023, the CHP placed the Capitol under a multi-hour lockdown and evacuation after receiving a credible threat linked to an active shooting suspect in nearby Roseville, according to KCRA 3.
The West Wing is a historic part of the Capitol complex.
