A 42-year-old man was apprehended on charges of making a terroristic threat after officials say he left a chilling message and a suspicious device outside a Tarrant County building in Fort Worth. The unsettling find, consisting of a white Styrofoam ice chest and a note directed at law enforcement, prompted an immediate evacuation of the Tarrant County Plaza Building at around 7 a.m. Wednesday, as per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Authorities, including a bomb squad, rushed to the scene at 200 Taylor St., where offices including the local sheriff's outpost are stationed. Despite the tensions, no explosive was found within the chest, and the building's doors reopened after officials declared the area safe. "It appeared the items and note had been left by the suspect for the purpose of causing mass alarm," officials divulged in a statement, further noting that a yellow Ford Focus was spotted fleeing the scene shortly after the package's placement, according to WFAA.
The suspect, Austin James Starkey, was known to drive a vehicle fitting the description of the observed Ford Focus, and this intel led to his arrest by a cohort of Tarrant County sheriff's officers and the U.S. Marshals Task Force in Dallas later that afternoon. Starkey, with a prior misdemeanor charge of criminal trespassing from April 2023, is currently held on a hefty $200,000 bond, facing a felony charge of making a terroristic threat.
Starkey's arrest occurred Wednesday afternoon, corroborating the account of the earlier report. Meanwhile, a separate incident of vandalism on Monday morning at the Old Tarrant County Courthouse is still under investigation, with authorities seeking a suspect caught on camera hurling a rock through a door window, as announced on social media by the sheriff’s office.
Anyone with additional insights on the vandalism is urged to make contact with Detective Soria at 817-884-1271 or via email at [email protected]. Amidst a heightened alert, authorities remain vigilant as Fort Worth grapples with these unsettling breaches of public security and the ever-relevant specter of potential danger lurking in benign packages left unattended on its civic doorsteps.
