Man, 61, charged with making threat
TALLAHASSEE — A Tallahassee man was charged Thursday with making a false bomb threat against the Florida Capitol in the early hours of the morning.
Tallahassee police arrested Mark Wayne Clark, 61, at the Corner Pocket bar less than three miles away from the Capitol.
Capitol Police were made aware of the threat before 3 a.m., and began sweeping the building and surrounding Capitol complex, but no explosive device was found.
The building was closed to state workers until 9 a.m. “out of an abundance of caution,” according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The FDLE alert stated the Capitol complex is secure, but noted it remains closed to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to the TPD, the Capitol Police, FDLE and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force worked to investigate the threat.
Ahead of President Joe Biden’s inauguration Wednesday, the FBI made public possible threats from far-right groups supporting former President Donald Trump targeting all 50 state Capitols. The threats came
two weeks after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress prepared to certify Biden’s Electoral College victory.
But there was only a smattering of about a dozen peaceful protesters outside Florida’s Capitol as Biden took the oath of office.