By Roger Lanse

A male called Grant County Regional Dispatch Authority on Monday, Aug. 28, 2023, regarding a bomb threat at Little Toad Creek, 200 N. Bullard Street. Silver City Police Department officers were dispatched at approximately 5:49 p.m.

According to an SCPD incident report, dispatchers said the male stated he had placed a pipe bomb inside the Toad that was set to go off in 10 minutes. He also stated he could see officers arriving on scene and could observe them entering the building. He said, "time is ticking, there's only five minutes left."

Officers were stationed for traffic control, the report said, at Hudson Street and Broadway, Bullard and Spring streets, Texas Street and Broadway, and Bullard and Yankie streets. All patrons and employees were evacuated from the building.

At about 5:57 p.m., the male stated he had miscalculated the time and it may be longer than 10 minutes before the bomb explodes. He also said it was fun watching the officers trying to defuse the bomb and wanted the officers to go inside so he could explode the bomb with them inside. According to the report, he also said he was inside the Toad with an AR-15. Officers attempted to learn the location of the male from Verizon, but the company could not verify the location the male was calling from. The male then stated there were two minutes until the bomb explodes.

When the male stated he could see officers exiting the top portion of the building and walking into "a forest," and officers knew they were not walking into "a forest," they believed the male was watching them from the Live from Silver City camera located on top of City Hall. The report stated as soon as that camera was turned off the male demanded officers bring him $10,000 to the front door and disconnected the line.

Officers and the manager of the Toad walked through the building and did not observe anything suspicious or out of place or anything that should not have been there. When the search was completed, officers opened all the roadways.

The suspect remains at large.