Anderson County Courthouse 'all clear' after evacuation because of bomb threat

The Anderson County Courthouse was evacuated for nearly two hours Tuesday morning after someone called 911 and reported a bomb threat at the building. The threat was ultimately determined to be unfounded, officials said.

Sgt. J.T. Foster, a spokesman for the Anderson County Sheriff's Office, said a male called 911 about 8:30 a.m. from a phone that is set up only to make emergency calls. Foster said the caller told a dispatcher that there was a bomb inside the courthouse.

The Sheriff's Office's bomb squad and its dogs trained to sniff explosives checked the courthouse, which is on South Main Street in downtown Anderson, and found no device there.

Anderson County Clerk of Court Richard Shirley said he was parking his car to go into work when he got a call from an official informing him that the building was being evacuated and that he couldn't go inside.

Shirley said employees were told that the building was clear of threats around 10:15 a.m. and they were allowed to go back inside.

"We were given the all-clear," he said. 

The incident Tuesday marked the third time in 17 months that the courthouse has been evacuated because of a bomb threat.

In March 2018, the building was briefly evacuated after someone called in a threat.

"I've been told someone called 911 and said, 'My daughter is supposed to be in court today, and she's not going back to jail,'" Shirley said at the time. "And that caller indicated that someone was going to blow the place up."

The courthouse was evacuated again in July 2018 when another threat was made. In that case, a person made "a nonspecific threat to blow up a courthouse," according to Nikki Carson, who was then a spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office and is now the assistant chief for the Anderson Police Department. Other courthouses in the county, including magistrate courts and the Ronald Townsend Building on North Main Street in Anderson, were monitored and their officials were put on alert.

Foster said investigators will review the 911 call made Tuesday to determine whether to pursue charges in the latest case.