Two threatening letters containing white powder and mailed to two places 60 miles apart in metro Atlanta could be related, the FBI said Monday.
No one exposed to the powdery substance in recent days has had any symptoms. But the results of lab tests on the powder found Friday at the Richard B. Russell federal building in Atlanta were not available Monday, according to Stephen Emmett, special agent in the FBI Atlanta office.
Mailroom workers at the Russell building found the letter containing the unidentified powder, prompting an evacuation, the U.S. Marshal Service said. Three Marshal Service employees were transported to Grady Memorial Hospital for evaluation Friday, but all were released that night, according to Deputy Gretchen Fortin.
The day before, a letter containing a suspicious white powder was received at The Herald Gazette newspaper office in Barnesville, about 60 miles south of downtown Atlanta. Field tests conducted on the substance in Barnesville indicated it wasn’t dangerous, Emmett said.
But it was scary, said Walter Geiger, co-owner of The Herald Gazette since 1979.
“As soon as I pulled the letter out, I had powder all over me,” Geiger told The Macon Telegraph.
Geiger, also the paper’s publisher and news editor, said he immediately washed with antibacterial soap.
“It was frightening, especially when you’ve got powder all over your hands,” he said.
Lamar County police evacuated the building and surrounding area during the investigation, the newspaper reported.
Earlier this year, letters containing the deadly poison ricin were sent to President Barack Obama, a U.S. senator, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a judge in separate cases.
A package reported to possibly contain a powder Monday afternoon at the Department of Veterans Affairs building on Clairmont Road in DeKalb County proved to be a false alarm, the FBI said.
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