Arrest made in connection with Idaho State Capitol bomb threat

A Pocatello man has been arrested in connection with a bomb threat made earlier this month to a state government building in Boise, Idaho State Police said in a press release.

On the morning of October 8, the Pocatello Police Department responded to a report of a 58-year-old man making multiple threatening phone calls to employees of a property management company in Pocatello. 

During those calls, he allegedly made statements threatening violence, including threats to “blow them up.”

Approximately 20 minutes after the initial phone calls, employees at the Idaho State Capitol complex in Boise received multiple threatening phone calls from the same phone number. 

In the first call, a male claimed a bomb had been planted in the building. The Capitol was promptly evacuated as a precaution.

Two additional voicemails were received from the same number, which included threatening language consistent with the initial call.

Later that morning, Pocatello Police located the man and took him into protective custody. A subsequent investigation by Pocatello Police and ISP detectives linked the man to the Capitol threats.

Earlier this week investigators confirmed the identity match between the man and the voice on the Capitol threat recordings. 

He was arrested Thursday and booked into the Bannock County Sheriff’s Office jail on probable cause for one felony count of false reports of explosives in public or private places, in violation of Idaho Code § 18-3313.

No explosives were found at the Capitol, and there is no ongoing threat to public safety. The identity of the man has not been made public at this time.

An investigation continues.