Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Maryland, My Maryland

Balmer Sun, Annapolis Police say Maryland State House is all clear after bomb threat

Law enforcement officers say the Maryland State House is all clear after a bomb threat was reported late Tuesday afternoon, according to Annapolis Police Chief Ed Jackson.

The Annapolis Police Department received a call shortly before 4 p.m. Tuesday from a woman who claimed to have planted a bomb at the historic gathering place of the Maryland General Assembly, which ended its session in April.

“We are going to go and invoke all of the protocols to make sure the buildings are safe,” Jackson said earlier. “We’ll do everything we can to mitigate the threat to make sure if there is a device, we find it and properly dispose of it to prevent serious emergency.”

As of 4:20 p.m. members of the Anne Arundel County and Annapolis Police Departments had blocked off traffic at the intersection of Bladen and Calvert streets. Cars and pedestrians also were blocked from entering College Avenue from Church Circle.

Multiple K-9 units arrived at the State House as state employees left their buildings across the Capitol Complex. David Schuhlein, a spokesperson for Senate President Bill Ferguson, said capitol police were the first to alert building occupants of the threat. At the time, Schuhlein said the threat was “credible” but it’s unclear where or who it’s from, and that the building was immediately evacuated “out of an abundance of caution.”

Without saying anything about its occupants, the building certainly is iconic.

The beautiful Maryland State House is the oldest state capitol still in continuous legislative use. It is the oldest and largest wooden dome of its kind in the United States. The Maryland State House was the first peacetime capitol of the United States and is the only state house ever to have served as the nation's capitol.

It would be a shame for something to happen to it. 

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