Austin, Texas, police have arrested a man for emailing a bomb threat to the Fair Market in East Austin on Saturday evening, forcing the cancellation of a
Austin, Texas, police have arrested a man for emailing a bomb threat to the Fair Market in East Austin on Saturday evening, forcing the cancellation of a concert by The Roots at the South by Southwest festival. Police charged 26-year-old Trevor Weldon Ingram with making a terroristic threat, which is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
According to The Austin-American Statesman, a representative of the event promotion company Live Nation Music called the police to report the company had received a bomb threat via email at 4:23 p.m. Central time on Saturday. Officers checked the concert venue, but found nothing suspicious. Police took Ingram into custody at 11:15 p.m. Saturday night.
On Twitter, SXSW apologized to attendees for the inconvenience, writing, “Your safety and the safety of all fans at SXSW is our most important priority.”
The Roots’ drummer, Questlove, wrote on Twitter on Sunday that “no one is Mr. ‘show must go on’ than me. But we can’t risk our lives if we are told there was a bomb threat.”
According to The New York Times, Ludacris, Rapsody and SWV also had been also been scheduled to perform.
The bomb threat came at a time of heightened fear in Austin following three package bombs that exploded in East Austin earlier this month.
Anthony House, 39, died after a package bomb exploded on March 2. Another went off on March 12, critically wounding a 75-year-old woman, just hours after a bomb killed 17-year-old Draylen Mason and injured his mother when they opened a package in their kitchen. The cases remain unsolved.
The Austin Police Department, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced an increase in the reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or people behind the bombs, offering $100,000, in addition to a $15,000 reward being offered by the Texas governor’s office.
In a statement on Saturday’s bomb threat at SXSW, the Austin Police department wrote that “there are no indications of any broader security concern for any activities relating to this incident.”
