Bomb Scare Cleared At Fulton County Courthouse: Sheriff

ATLANTA, GA — A suspicious suitcase found near the Fulton County Courthouse led law enforcement authorities to close roads around the courthouse, the Fulton County Government Center, Atlanta City Hall and the Georgia State Capital on Monday morning during rush hour traffic.

Sometime before 8 a.m., a report of the large back suitcase was made outside a parking deck near the courthouse. Just after 10:45 a.m., Fulton County Sheriff Patrick "Pat" Labat indicated to Patch that all was clear.

"Yes," Labat said in a text message when asked if the threat was eliminated.

Deputies with the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office closed off streets around the Underground Atlanta parking deck at Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Pryor Street where the suitcase was abandoned, and eventually shut down streets at a wider radius, Sheriff's officials report.

Sheriff's Deputies called bomb technicians and requested help from the Atlanta Police Department to investigate.

As a precaution, Sheriff's deputies did not allow anyone in or out of the Fulton County Justice Complex or the Fulton County Government Building. Those inside the Justice Complex, which includes, among other things, Superior and Magistrate courts for the county, a county law library, the Office of the Clerk of the Court, and the Office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, sheltered in place, officials said.

Willis last week asked the FBI to provide a security assessment of the courthouse after former president Donald Trump made a televised weekend speech demanding "the biggest protests we have ever had" in Atlanta, New York City and Washington, D.C., of prosecutors investigating him.

Referring to Trump's demands that thousand march on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and the riot and violent attack that followed, Willis wrote in her letter to the FBI: "We must work together to keep the public safe and ensure that we do not have a tragedy in Atlanta similar to what happened at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021."

The District Attorney has opened an investigation into Trump's Jan. 3, 2021 call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him to "find 11,780 votes" to overturn the state's results in the 2020 presidential election that flipped the state in favor of Democrat Joe Biden. Because of that investigation, Willis planned to impanel a special purpose grand jury by May to further that case.

The Fulton County Government Center, which sits across Pryor street from the courthouse, has also been shut down with no one leaving or entering, Channel 2 Action News reports, as a bomb disposal robot is being used to investigate the package at the corner of MLK and Central Avenue.

Traffic was also closed on Central Avenue, MLK, Mitchell Street and Peachtree Street around the courthouse, the Fulton Government Center and Atlanta City Hall and the State Capitol nearby.