One person is in custody after a bomb threat prompted police to evacuate the federal building in Downtown Pittsburgh Monday evening, officials said.
Albert Henard Morris, 60, was arrested at a house in Homewood and is charged with terroristic threats and a threat to use weapons of mass destruction, according to a criminal complaint. He is not facing federal charges.
Officers responded to the William S. Moorhead Federal Building around 5 p.m. after Morris allegedly called 911 and threatened to blow the building up, officials said. Dispatchers told police Morris called a second time, threatening to blow up the Herbert C. Hoover building in Washington, D.C.
In response to the threat, Pittsburgh police set up a perimeter that shut down nearby roads, including Grant Street. All occupants were evacuated from the building that houses more than a dozen federal agencies, including the FBI, Veterans Administration, Internal Revenue Service, Army Corps of Engineers, Weather Bureau.
Bomb-sniffing dogs were deployed to ensure no explosive devices were in the building. The criminal complaint did not specify if any devices were found in the federal building.
Around 6 p.m., dispatchers provided police with a phone number that was tracked to a Homewood house located along North Lang Avenue. During an initial visit to the home, officers spoke with a woman who lived on the first floor, who officers said seemed confused about the situation. She told police that she and another person on the first floor did not make calls.
Officers said they also spoke to a resident who lived on the second floor who claimed to not have made phone calls or have a working cellphone. The resident refused to come outside.
During a second visit, Pittsburgh police and ATF officers had the woman convince the upstairs resident to come outside, where he identified himself as Morris, police said. According to the criminal complaint, Morris then told officers he had made the phone calls threatening “the federal building and the one in Washington.”
Morris said he made the threats because the government owed him money and legal rights, the complaint reads.
Agents said they did not find any explosive devices in the upstairs apartment.
Morris is being held at the Allegheny County Jail where he is awaiting a preliminary hearing.
An Allegheny County 911 shift commander Monday evening confirmed with the Tribune-Review that there had been no medical transports from the federal building, just a “large police presence” in the area. Grant Street and other nearby roads had reopened by 7 p.m.
