Louisville police have detained a man in connection to last month’s downtown bomb scare.
Jimmy Smith Jr., 49, was arrested Friday night in the Park Hill neighborhood. He’s been charged with first-degree terroristic threatening.
According to a Louisville Metro Police Department press release, Smith was taken into custody through a search warrant for not complying with the Kentucky Sex Offender Registry.
A suspicious package was found downtown on August 12 around Jefferson and Fifth streets, near Metro Hall. According to an arrest citation, the word “bomb” was written on it, leading to a shelter-in-place order for nearby areas and the closure of city blocks for several hours.
The package was determined to be a “hoax explosive device,” and both FBI forensic evidence and Smith’s own admissions linked him to the package, per the press release.
“I appreciate the swift and diligent work on this joint-investigation which culminated in the safe apprehension of the suspect,” said LMPD Chief Erika Shields in a statement.
The release did not identify a possible motive.
Under Kentucky law, first-degree terroristic threatening carries a sentence of 5 to 10 years imprisonment.
