A bomb threat issued to facilities in Springfield, Ohio, prompted the evacuation and closure of Springfield City Hall, city officials said in a Sept. 12 statement.
Officials were alerted to the threat via an email message at 8:24 a.m. on Thursday, according to the statement posted on social media. The bomb threat was emailed to multiple agencies and media outlets.
“As a precautionary measure, the building has been evacuated, and authorities are currently conducting a thorough investigation. Our primary concern is the safety and well-being of our employees and residents. We are working to address this situation as swiftly as possible,” a City of Springfield spokesperson said in the statement.
“We ask the community to avoid the area surrounding City Hall vicinity while the investigation is ongoing and to report any suspicious activity to the Springfield Police Division. We appreciate your patience and cooperation as we work through this matter.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Springfield City Schools has confirmed that students at Fulton Elementary School were evacuated Thursday morning and taken to Springfield High School based on “information received from the State Fire Marshal.”
“Students and staff are safe; however, the District is in the process of a controlled release to safely dismiss Fulton students to their parents,” the spokesperson said. “This is however, the only District building that has been affected at this time.”
The Epoch Times reached out to the city and law enforcement for additional information but didn’t receive a reply by publication time.
Springfield has drawn national attention in recent days after viral social media posts alleged that illegal immigrants from Haiti were killing and eating pets and wild animals in the neighborhood. People who spoke at town hall events, videos of which were shared online, also accused the newcomers of making the locals feel unsafe by frequently crashing vehicles and squatting on people’s property.
The allegations were amplified by former President Donald Trump on the national stage. “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” he said during his second presidential debate on the night of Sept. 10. “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats … they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Trump’s running mate, also wrote on social media that he had previously raised the issue of Haitian immigrants “causing chaos all over Springfield.”
“Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country,” Vance wrote.
City officials disputed the allegations. In a statement on Sept. 10, Springfield Strategic Engagement Manager Karen Graves told The Epoch Times that there have been “no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”
Since 2020, about 15,000 Haitians have settled in Springfield, a city with a population of just under 60,000. They were granted permission to stay under Temporary Protected Status, which was extended to Haitians who arrived in the United States before June 3, including those who entered illegally, shielding them from deportation.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, announced on Sept. 11 that in an effort to deal with the “surge of migrants” in Springfield, he was deploying Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers to patrol Springfield’s roads, as well as allocating $2.5 million to provide more primary health care.
“The federal government simply has to be part of the solution,” the governor said. “They have to step up. It’s their policies that have created these surges.”
From The Epoch Times