Three state Department of Health buildings in Tumwater were evacuated Wednesday afternoon after a man called an employee in one of those buildings and delivered the following threat: “There’s a bomb in the building and I’m going to take out everyone except you.”
That’s according to Tumwater police Lt. Jen Kolb.
After the employee answered the phone and heard the threat, he tried to get the man’s name but the man hung up, she said. The employee later told his supervisor and the decision was made to evacuate buildings.
The three buildings are in the area of Capitol Boulevard Southeast and Israel Road Southeast.
Kolb identified the employee as a “complaint specialist.”
There’s no indication that the employee and the man who made the threat know each other, although police are still trying to determine whether the threat was made against the employee, or if he was just unlucky in answering the phone, she said.
In addition to police and Tumwater fire, the Washington State Patrol bomb squad, including a bomb-sniffing dog, were dispatched to the area shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday.
No bomb was found in the first two buildings searched by the dog, and a search of the third building was underway, Kolb said just before 8 p.m. Wednesday.
This is the second evacuation of state offices in as many weeks. The State Patrol evacuated the state Highways Licenses Building for a bomb threat against the Attorney General’s Office on Sept. 26.
