The bomb threat that wasn’t
Part of downtown Laramie was evacuated Tuesday after someone called 9-1-1 claiming to be there with a gun and a car bomb. There was no bomb and the caller was not downtown.
A Laramie PrideFest event at the Laramie Railroad Depot was just beginning Tuesday night when organizers caught wind of a bomb threat three blocks to the north, in the heart of Laramie’s historic downtown. Tension and anxiety blanketed the event as attendees shared what information they could and as organizers were contacted by police.
The event was a Pride-themed “Tales at the Taphouse” — a local, regular event that encourages community members to tell their stories. For Pride Month, the group was encouraging members of the queer community to reflect on the generations that had come before, and those that will come after.
The event was only slightly delayed by news of the bomb threat, but some tension remained as the first speakers stepped up to the microphone. By the event’s intermission, organizer Rose Curtis was able to update attendees. The threat, she said, was deemed not credible.
Three blocks away, the intersection of Second Street and Ivinson Avenue was completely blocked off and buildings around that area had been evacuated.
Ultimately, law enforcement came to believe that the alleged threat was actually part of a “swatting” operation — a typically criminal act in which someone reports false information about terroristic threats or other criminal activity. The goal is often to rain down a large, armed law enforcement response on unsuspecting innocent civilians or to disrupt businesses or events.
Piecing together the police narrative, firsthand accounts from civilians on the scene, and information shared with the nearby PrideFest event, there’s evidence to suggest that the caller making threats was using a 24/7 livestream of the intersection to describe specific details and make it appear that he was present, when in fact he was not.
Laramie Police Department Lt. Ryan Thompson would not confirm those details to the Laramie Reporter. Police have yet to name a suspect, but their conversation with the caller points to possible motives.
“Obviously it’s Pride Month and there was stuff going on downtown, so we did explore that as far as possible reasons,” Thompson said. “But we don’t think that was the case at all — nothing related to that.”
Based on the sparse communications LPD had with the suspect, the police got some inkling of his motivations.
“What he told dispatch was that society was ‘whacked’ and that’s why he was doing this,” Thompson said. “Nothing more than that. I would suspect it’s just somebody who wants to create hate and disruption and thinks it’s funny to shut down businesses and make them lose money and tie up emergency service resources. There’s no specific threats or agenda that that person had on why he was doing what he was doing.”
Communication and evacuation
The male suspect initially called dispatch at 5:08 p.m., claiming they were armed with a large rifle and looking to shoot people at a business “in the 200 block of South Second Street,” according to an LPD news release. They hung up and called back a few times over the span of about 20 minutes, Thompson said.
“And we were just getting ready to get a negotiator on the phone with him, but then he stopped calling back and wouldn’t answer our callbacks,” Thompson said. “So that kind of went out the window. He broke off communication with us.”
The LPD news release states the caller also claimed that he planted an “explosive device in a vehicle in the area” and “officers responded and secured the area, evacuating several businesses and residences.”
Thompson said law enforcement quickly determined no one was in the threat area wielding a rifle. But ruling out the bomb threat took longer.
“He did name a specific vehicle and say that the bomb was in that one,” Thompson said. “He wasn’t related to that vehicle whatsoever. That took a little bit of time, getting the bomb techs out and going through that vehicle and making sure there wasn’t anything in that.”
The Laramie Fire Department, the Albany County Sheriff’s Office and even University of Wyoming police responded to the scene as well, blocking off the area and evacuating people from businesses and residences.
Civilians on the scene said the evacuation was more inconvenient than scary, and one bar manager from the evacuated area said that the presence of several heavily armed law enforcement officers was scarier than the threat itself — a threat they ultimately found difficult to believe.
“It was so abundantly clear that there was no real threat,” they said. “The cops came in to clear the building and said there was allegedly a device in a truck out front and we needed to leave. But they never asked me if anyone was upstairs or downstairs.”
The bar manager, employees and others gathered in another nearby bar and ordered drinks.
Thompson said the explosive device described by the caller would have had a limited range and the evacuation distance was based on that.
“It depends on what kind of threat you’re receiving and how big the explosive device is alleged to be,” he said. “So, for what it was, we figured a probably 150-feet blast radius on that. The reported threat would dictate how far we would evacuate.”
Thompson would not give further details about the type of explosive device being described.
In addition to the bomb response unit, one visible component of the city’s response was an LFD ladder truck with the ladder extended up toward the corner of a building. As local civilians surmised, and as “Tales at the Taphouse” organizers informed attendees at their event, the ladder truck was probably being used to cut the 24/7 livefeed of the area, but Thompson would not confirm that either.
The “all-clear” and the cash reward
There might have been issues with the notification system used to clear the area and give everyone the all-clear. Most people in the vicinity got a Red Alert, similar to an Amber Alert, sent to their phones when the incident kicked off. That alert told people to steer clear of Second Street.
There should have been a similar message letting those in the vicinity know the situation was “all-clear” once the threat had been deemed not credible. But some people on the scene never received that all-clear, while others nowhere close to the event area did.
The local bar manager said they were frustrated.
“After all was said and done, all the cops drove away, they never gave us the all clear,” they said. “I had to walk across the street and ask the one remaining cop if it was all clear.”
Thompson said those in the area should have been notified, but that there might be some issue with the notification system.
“There should absolutely have been an all-clear, the same way they were notified to please evacuate the area,” he said.
The Laramie Police Department announced a $1,000 cash reward for credible information that helps them find the suspect. The department hopes to charge the suspect with making terroristic threats.
“Swatting would be prosecuted under Wyoming Statute 6-3-505, Terroristic Threats, which states a person is guilty of a terroristic threat if he threatens to commit any violent felony with the intent to cause evacuation of a building, place of assembly or facility of public transportation, or otherwise to cause serious public inconvenience, or in reckless disregard of the risk of causing such inconvenience,” the news release states. “A terroristic threat is a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than three years.”
Back at the Railroad Depot, the PrideFest event carried on. The nearby threats had rattled some nerves, but the speakers were still able to go on, reflecting on everything from religious trauma to suicidal ideation to finding oneself and one’s place in the world.
PrideFest events continued through the week, and Pride in the Park will go ahead today as scheduled.