West Olympia apartments evacuated after Saturday bomb threat, police say
A 35-year-old Olympia man was arrested over the weekend after he threatened to use a bomb to take his own life and blow up his mother’s apartment, according to police.
About noon Saturday, Olympia police were dispatched to the 2100 block of Evergreen Park Drive Southwest where they met with the mother a short distance from her apartment, Police Lt. Paul Lower said.
The woman said her son had been staying with her the past couple of nights and appeared to be building something that looked like a bomb. He sent a video to her phone, making statements about taking his own life and blowing up the apartment, Lower said.
Police confirmed the man was still in the apartment, then began to contact and evacuate nearby apartments. They also called the Washington State Patrol bomb squad and Thurston County SWAT, Lower said.
Thurston County SWAT negotiated with the man for two hours, finally getting him to come out and surrender to authorities without incident.
Washington State Patrol concluded the bomb was not a bomb.
The man was booked into the Thurston County Jail on suspicion of threats to bomb or damage property.
