Arizona man arrested for alleged White House bomb threat

Jacob Aaron Hicks, a 46-year-old resident of Tucson, Arizona, has been arrested and charged with transmitting an interstate threat to cause injury. Federal authorities allege that Hicks sent an email on September 23 warning of an “imminent bomb strike against the White House and other locations in Washington, D.C.”

The investigation began after a Tucson television station received the email and reported it to law enforcement. During the subsequent investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service, authorities discovered additional draft messages in an email account associated with Hicks. These drafts, also dated September 23, were addressed to other news organizations and contained similar threats regarding the White House and other sites in the capital.

U.S. Attorney Timothy Courchaine stated that threats of violence must be treated with the “utmost seriousness,” while FBI Special Agent in Charge Rebecca Day credited the local news station for bringing the matter to the attention of authorities.