Man Arrested After Bomb Threat At Michigan Capitol Thursday: AG

LANSING, MI — An Eaton County man has been arrested in connection with a bomb threat made at the Michigan Capitol Thursday morning, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's office has confirmed.

Nessel's office said it is reviewing possible charges against a 48-year-old man from Charlotte. Patch is not releasing the man's name pending his arraignment.

The suspect was arrested outside his home Thursday afternoon without incident by the MSP Emergency Support Team and Fugitive Team, according to the AG's office. He is in custody and expected to be housed at the Lansing City Jail, officials said.

The Michigan Capitol Building reopened to people authorized to be there after briefly closing Thursday morning due to a bomb threat that was reported to and investigated by the Michigan State Police, officials said.

Michigan State Police said Thursday morning that a threat was called into MSP around 6:40 a.m. By 9 a.m., MSP had swept the building and determined it was safe, MSP officials said. The building had already been closed to the public due to COVID-19 protocols and the Michigan Legislature is not in session.

"Every effort will be made to identify the person who made this threat and prosecute them to the fullest extent the law will allow," state police officials said in a statement released shortly after the building was reopened.

Several Michigan senators posted on social media Thursday morning that they had received a text alert notifying them that the capitol building had been closed beginning at 7:30 a.m. due to the threat.

Michigan Sen. Mallory McMorrow tweeted an image of the text alert notifying her and other lawmakers of the threat. She drew parallels to the threat and riots that took place Wednesday, when supporters of President Donald Trump, upset over the results of the Nov. 3 election in which Trump was defeated by Democratic President-elect Joe Biden, stormed Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., resulting in four deaths and the evacuation of government buildings.

"Without consequences, this will keep happening," McMorrow said in her tweet. "This is why it's so egregious that so many involved in yesterday's events were simply escorted out of the US Capitol and sent home."

According to Michael Thomas of the Lansing TV station WLNS, a Michigan State Police bomb squad was at the Michigan Capitol building, and police entered the building with a K-9 dog and asked people to avoid the area.

Authorities reportedly said they were confident no one without authority had entered the Michigan Capitol building, noting that it had been under guard since Wednesday's protests.

The threat came one day after the pro-Trump protest on Capitol Hill turned into a large riot in which four people died. A protest was held outside the Michigan Capitol on Wednesday as well, although accounts of that rally noted it was not violent. The state capitol building also was closed on Wednesday.