St. Cloud police on Wednesday arrested a man who allegedly threatened to bomb city hall and left a suspicious bag inside the building later deemed not to contain any explosives.
Man arrested after Facebook post threatened to bomb St. Cloud City Hall — and tagged FBI
Bag with no explosives found outside the building. No public safety threat at this time, police say.
Assistant Police Chief Jeff Oxton said police learned of the threatening comments, posted on Facebook, at about 10:13 a.m. Officers soon searched St. Cloud City Hall, finding a bag belonging to the suspect outside. Oxton said "an explosive detection K-9" checked the bag but it only contained personal items belonging to the man.
Police found the man, who has not been publicly identified or charged, at 110 Atwood Center on the campus of St. Cloud State University, where he was arrested without incident. Police said the man is now in the Stearns County jail pending charges of terroristic threats.
In a news release Wednesday, St. Cloud police said there was no threat to public safety and that the FBI is assisting in the investigation.
St. Cloud State Public Safety Supervisor David Schnettler told the University Chronicle, a campus publication, that the man arrested, a former student, planned to meet with the FBI on campus "for an unrelated manner" before the FBI learned of his threats posted online.
A 9:48 a.m. post by a Facebook account believed to belong to the suspect read "Im bouta bomb this town" and "I have a bag somewhere in city hall saint cloud." The post also tagged the FBI's Facebook account. At 10:14 a.m., right when St. Cloud police say they learned of the threats, the man followed with another post: "seriously waitig (sic) ... pLEASE AWW WTF im [expletive] tryna goo home to the city!!!!"
The FBI declined to comment.
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