The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday released audio recordings and surveillance video in connection with two bomb threats that shut down the county courthouse complex for much of the previous day.
The Cherokee County Justice Center and Historic Courthouse in Canton reopened Wednesday morning after being closed for more than five hours Tuesday while authorities searched the buildings and grounds for a purported bomb.
Cherokee Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Jay Baker told the AJC that a male called the Atlanta 911 center shortly before 11 a.m. Tuesday, saying that the Cherokee courthouse would be bombed.
An audio rec0rding of the 911 call has a man referring to the C4 plastic explosive, saying, “Cherokee County courthouse will be bombed today. It’s going to be C4 underground, bombed today.”
Baker said the complex was evacuated as a precaution. Bomb-sniffing dogs from the Sheriff’s Office searched the perimeters and interiors of the buildings and found nothing.
While the search was under way, a second bomb threat to the courthouse was received by Cobb County 911, Baker said.
Authorities also released Wednesday surveillance video of a gas station parking lot at 1501 Roswell Road in Cobb County. They said the second threat was called in from a pay phone there, and whoever made the call may have been driving a silver Cadillac DeVille seen in the video.
The calls likely were placed by different individuals, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Baker said Wednesday that detectives were following up on leads in an attempt to find out who made the threatening calls.
"In 2008, we had a similar threat made by a suspect trying to avoid a court proceeding. He was identified and charged," the sheriff's spokesman said.
Anyone with any information about the latest threats or the Cadillac was urged to contact Cherokee Sheriff’s detectives at 770-928-0239.
-- Staff writer Mike Morris contributed to this article.
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