A suspicious device built to resemble an explosive prompted an evacuation of the Colorado State Capitol Wednesday morning, shutting down nearby streets before bomb technicians determined it posed no danger and police arrested a 32-year-old man.
Colorado State Patrol responded to the Capitol at around 10:34 a.m. after the device was found on a windowsill outside the building's east entrance, according to Denver7. The item was designed to look like an explosive device, the station reported, though officials have not detailed its construction. The Denver Gazette reported the discovery occurred on the building's east side windowsill, matching the location described by Denver7.
As a precaution, the Capitol was evacuated at approximately 11:12 a.m., per the station's reporting. Lincoln Street and 14th Avenue were both closed off during the evacuation as authorities secured the area around the building, the outlet noted. The Denver Police Department Bomb Squad arrived on scene roughly two minutes later, at approximately 11:14 a.m., according to the same report.
Testing Clears the Scene
Bomb technicians tested the device, which was found to pose no danger. The evacuation order was lifted at 11:49 a.m., and both Lincoln Street and 14th Avenue reopened to traffic shortly after, the station reported. Testing found the device was not a threat to the public, and officials said there was no ongoing hazard at the Capitol, per the same account.
KDVR reported that Colorado State Patrol identified a person of interest believed to have information about the device, separate from any arrest. State Patrol also said a 32-year-old man was arrested and his custody transferred to the Denver Police Department, though officials have not detailed the circumstances connecting the arrest to the suspicious item or to the identified person of interest.
Open Questions Remain
No charging documents, booking records, or court filings describing the arrest have been made public, and the exact contents or construction of the device have not been disclosed by authorities. It also remains unclear whether the arrested 32-year-old and the person of interest named by Colorado State Patrol are one and the same. A similar incident at the Capitol in years past, reported by Colorado Public Radio, involved an evacuation tied to a suspected bomb threat, underscoring that this is not the first time the building has been cleared over a security scare, though details of that earlier case were not independently verified for this report.
Colorado law includes a statute, Colorado Revised Statutes section 18-8-110, labeled False report of explosives, weapons, or harmful substances, which addresses reports that a bomb or other explosive exists, according to a legislative document hosted by the Colorado General Assembly. The excerpt alone does not establish whether that statute applies to Wednesday's incident, and no charges tied to that law have been confirmed.
