Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks said he's subpoenaed phone records in an effort to identify who called in a bomb threat Monday morning at the Leflore County Courthouse.
"There was a bomb threat. There was no bomb. I'm going to track it down," Banks said.
The call, which came in around 9 a.m., prompted the evacuation of the courthouse for more than 45 minutes as deputies searched the building and grounds for a bomb. By noon, the building was declared safe.
A similar call was placed to the Carroll County Courthouse around 9:45 a.m.
At both courthouses, grand juries, which issue criminal indictments, were impaneled shortly before the bomb threats came in.
Carroll County Sheriff Don Gray said Monday night that he hoped subpoenaed phone records from BellSouth might give investigators a "real number" for the person who triggered the evacuation of the Carrollton Courthouse mid-morning, interrupting circuit court proceedings for at least an hour.
An unidentified man said, "There's a bomb in the courthouse," when the county's bookkeeper, Marlee Golden, answered the phone about 9:45 a.m. Chief Deputy Michael Spellman rushed upstairs to inform Gray.
Gray alerted Circuit Judge Clarence Morgan, who had just empanelled a new grand jury.
The sheriff said he hoped to have the suspect's number by this morning.
Gray said the Mississippi Highway Patrol sent an officer who was familiar with explosives to help conduct a visual sweep of the building.
He said the search was concluded by 11 a.m.
Under state law, a person convicted of making a bomb threat by telephone, mail, e-mail or by any other means of communication can face up to 10 years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both.
"There seems to be a rash of these lately," Banks said.
On May 6, a bomb threat was called in to Wal-Mart.
On Friday, Greenwood High School received a bomb threat, and the building was evacuated.
Greenwood Fire Chief Larry Griggs, whose daughter attends the school, said students at GHS were out of the building for a while but were allowed to return to class.
Griggs said his department remained on stand-by at both the high school and courthouse until the buildings were declared safe.
Susie James, a Greenwood Commonwealth news stringer in Carroll County, contributed to this report.
