South Sound News

Investigators identify suspect in series of bomb threats in Thurston Co.

By Deedee Sun, KIRO 7 News
By Deedee Sun, KIRO 7 News

OLYMPIA, Wash. — UPDATE: According to a press release from the Washington State Patrol, the suspect in this serial bomb threat case has been identified as Said Farzad.

WSP said, "[Farzad] is currently known to be out of the country. His last known presence in the United States was June 2018. The fact that he is out of the country presents challenges in making an arrest or requiring him to cease the threats."

The Washington State Patrol said Said Farzad is tied to 18 separate cases involving multiple agencies. They believe this is all tied to an administrative inquire that resulted in his license to practice as a psychiatrist to be revoked in 2014.

PREVIOUS STORY:

A man has made five bomb threats to state buildings in four weeks. Investigators believe it's the same man making those threats, and say they're "narrowing in" on a suspect.

He called in the latest bomb threat on Thursday to the Attorney General's Office in Olympia.

Each time there's been no bomb but the threats are putting a huge drain on resources.

Scroll down to continue reading

More news from KIRO 7

DOWNLOAD OUR FREE NEWS APP

​"It's very frustrating," said Lt. Jen Kolb with the Tumwater Police Department. "The pattern was every Wednesday he'd call, and he's been doing that the last four weeks."

His wording is always a little different but with every call, Kolb said the man indicates there's a bomb in or around the building.

Washington State Patrol also responds.

"We have to call out our bomb squad, we have to call our K-9 units, and we have to completely sweep the buildings," said Capt. Monica Alexander with WSP. "These bomb sweeps take a very long time these are very large buildings," she said.

"It makes people really afraid because they don't know what's real or what's not," Alexander said.

In four out of the five cases, employees were evacuated and sent home.

"We went home to our families and at least for me, that's when it hit. I have two young children and to explain there was a bomb threat at my work, that made it more real," said Stephanie, an employee with the Department of Health.

The threats are also costing taxpayers.

State employees leave work and it drains law enforcement resources.

"The time, the manpower, it's extensive," Kolb said. "It clears out our patrol that's on duty," she said.

"It's wreaking a lot of havoc on state agencies," Alexander said.

Tumwater police said they are bringing the FBI to assist, but added now they have an idea of who the suspect is.

"We've narrowed in on a suspect. We can't say for sure at this point it's this person, but we're narrowing in on it," Kolb said.

WSP said technology actually adds to the challenge.

"They can route their numbers that are out of the country just with the touch of a computer and so we have some really great computer forensic people that are looking at that," Alexander said.

Here's the timeline of the threats:

Sept. 26 (Wed), 1:39 p.m. - Bomb threat call to the Attorney General's HQ office in Olympia.

Oct. 3 (Wed), 3:03 p.m. – WA State Department of Health, specifically to the Washington Medical Commission.

Oct. 10 (Wed), 3:53 p.m. – AG's office in Tumwater.

Oct. 17 (Wed), 11:10 a.m. – AG's office in Tumwater.

Oct. 18 (Thurs), 11:31 a.m. – Suspect broke pattern and made another threat to the Attorney General's HQ office in Olympia. Threat was to the exterior of the building so employees were told to stay inside and get away from the windows.

"We get threats periodically and that happens, but not like this," Alexander said. "It impacts everyone," she said.

WSP said it has created a unique code to track all the calls in this case to tally how much it's costing the department to handle all the cases.

Law enforcement agencies say if there's another threat they will absolutely continue taking them seriously.

Cox Media Group

0

Most Read