YUBA CITY — Schools in Yuba City and neighboring Marysville tightened security Thursday while law enforcement authorities searched for a man they said had threatened a Virginia Tech-style massacre.

Jeffery Thomas Carney, 28, was being sought after he told the pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Yuba City on Wednesday night that he planned a mass killing, Sutter County Sheriff Jim Denney said.

“He had some sort of explosive device and he was going to make the incident at Virginia Tech look mild by comparison,” Denney said during a Thursday news conference, characterizing the conversation between Carney and the pastor. “Our main emphasis, and I can’t stress this enough, is to find this suspect.”

The threat comes just days after 23-year-old Virginia Tech student Cho Seung-Hui gunned down 32 students on campus before killing himself.

Carney also told the pastor and some family members that he had an automatic weapon and poison, and that he was hoping to be killed by police as he carried out an assault, according to the sheriff’s department.

He made no specific threat against any particular location, the department said in a news release.

Carney was arrested in February and again April 4 on domestic violence allegations, and may be a methamphetamine user, Denney said. Sheriff’s officials said he is homeless but previously lived in Yuba City, about 35 miles north of Sacramento.

Yuba City Unified School District Superintendent Nancy Aaberg said in a statement posted to the district’s Web site that schools were being locked down and security increased. The move affected 17 schools and 12,000 students.

Schools in the neighboring Marysville Joint Unified School District also were locked down as a precaution. Yuba Community College remained open, but on heightened security.

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On the Net:

View photographs and a description of the suspect at http://sheriff.co.sutter.ca.us/press—media/2007/Criminal%20Threats%2 04-18-07.htm