NEW HAVEN, Conn. — There were some tense moments at New Haven City Hall Wednesday afternoon when a bomb threat was phoned in, but police have now made an arrest.
After New Haven Police asked the suspect, Jeffrey Grimes, 58, of New Haven, they asked him what his motivation was and they said he gave no answer..
Just after 4 p.m. Wednesday, the bomb threat phoned into New Haven’s mayor's office.
"The call came into the mayor's office main number, went to voicemail," said Mayor Justin Elicker. "Our staff quickly listened to the voicemail and identified that there was there was a person making a bomb threat."
Elicker said it was probably10-15 minutes from receipt of the voicemail and when it was listened to.
"We get a lot of calls in the office and saw some of them trip a voicemail but our staff is usually pretty quick at checking it," Elicker added.
The building was evacuated, swept by police and deemed safe within two hours. And it took cops less than a day to track down the man they say is responsible.
"Obviously there's a phone involved and I don't wanna get much deeper than that but when we have the information we're really good at doing cases," Jacobson said with a smile.
Grimes's charges include Threatening in the First Degree and Breach of Peace in the Second Degree.
"He was in the Department of Corrections for quite some time and then has now taken up residence in New Haven," Jacobson said.
And the assistant chief highlighted the fact that this suspect was released from jail before New Haven's Reentry Welcome Center run by Project M.O.R.E was up and running last year.
"When this gets into place, we're gonna be able to meet people at Project M.O.R.E and offer those services and maybe prevent these incidents which is very important," Jacobson emphasized.
Police said Grimes has a lengthy criminal history, but they had not dealt with him before this incident.
Tony Terzi is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at tterzi@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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