DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The DeKalb County Sheriff's Office says that the person behind a bomb threat that forced a courthouse evacuation is in jail - and was already there when he committed the act.
The sheriff's office announced on Friday that the agency's Office of Professional Standards found a DeKalb jail inmate was behind the initial threat that forced people to evacuate the DeKalb County Courthouse a day earlier.
“Not only did this individual commit an additional offense while already in custody, but he wasted valuable local law enforcement resources with his threat to life and property in our community,” Sheriff Melody Maddox said in a written statement.
The threat resulted in an hours-long search involving 60 people from five agencies and Homeland Security but ultimately never turned up any explosives.
Further investigation later determined that the suspect, in this case, was a 47-year-old inmate from Atlanta who was already being held without bond on a felony charge. He now faces an additional misdemeanor charge of terroristic threats and acts, the sheriff's office said.
On Wednesday, there was another scare at the courthouse after the sheriff's office said they stopped a man at a security checkpoint because the X-ray monitor revealed a loaded gun in his bag. He was arrested and there's no indication at this point the incident from Thursday and Wednesday linked in any way.