Georgia man arrested for numerous related incidents
A Georgia man is in custody after allegedly making bomb threats to numerous Ohio schools, including North Union High School, Tuesday.
Nicholas John-Frances Hall, 18, of 1385 Washington Road, Thomson, Georgia, was arrested Tuesday in McDuffie County, Georgia, by the McDuffie County Sheriff’s Office. Hall is charged in Washington County, Ohio, on one count each of inducing panic, a second-degree felony, and making terrorist acts, a third-degree felony.
Union County Sheriff Jamie Patton said that at about 10:58 a.m., a secretary at the North Union Board of Education Office received a phone call reporting a bomb. The caller said the bomb was at “your school.” When the secretary asked which building, the caller said the bomb was at the high school.
“It was a very short conversation and the individual hung up,” Patton said.
The district immediately called 911.
“North Union High School was immediately evacuated using the established safety plan,” said North Union School District Superintendent Rich Baird.
Patton said North Union staff and the school resource deputy assigned at the school were able to get all students and staff out of the building. Students were shuttled to several community sites off campus.
He said the elementary and middle schools were also put in lockdown until law enforcement was able to closer evaluate the situation.
“After a thorough sweep of the premises, law enforcement concluded that it was safe,” Baird said.
Baird said elementary and middle school students “continued with their day with building security measures in place until all was clear.”
As local detectives were investigating the situation, they learned that the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in southern Ohio was also investigating multiple bomb threats called into several area schools between May 6 and May 11.
“Records and leads indicate this subject has made a vast amount of other bomb threats outside Washington County and even outside the state of Ohio,” according to an affidavit filed by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday in Marietta Municipal Court.
According to court documents, in addition to the call to North Union, Hall allegedly made bomb threats or active shooter threats to more than a dozen schools in Athens, Franklin, Jackson, Morgan, Noble and Washington counties.
According to court documents, Hall allegedly used a mobile phone application to hide his phone number and create fake phone numbers to use so he could call the schools.
Patton said that as detectives investigated, they were able to identify the app. He said the IP address, email addresses and original phone numbers led them to a home in Pennsylvania.
Court documents detail Hall’s use of the app and email accounts which were tracked to a Pennsylvania address.
“As local law enforcement officials were working the active situation at North Union High School, federal agencies were in Minersville, Pennsylvania, executing a search warrant related to the investigation,” Patton said.
At the Pennsylvania home detectives learned the information belonged to Hall who used to live there, but moved to Georgia to live with his grandmother.
Investigators worked with Google to get a phone number for the email addresses and with Verizon to locate the cell phone.
Hall was taken into custody without incident, Patton said.
According to court documents, the arresting detective “obtained a confession from Hall that he had made the bomb threats to get his girlfriend out of school at Waterford High School.”
According to reports, detectives have not confirmed the alleged girlfriend’s existence or attendance at the school.
Officials said the case in Union County remains under investigation. Patton said investigators do not know how or why Hall targeted the North Union School District.
Baird and Patton each said school administrators, staff and students did exactly what was expected according to their emergency operations plan.
“There are policies and procedures and a plan in place to follow and they followed it perfectly,” Baird said. “Obviously, we are very pleased with how this was handled, by everybody.”
The sheriff said he knows there will be second guessing, but the safety of students is “paramount.”
“We can never take threats to any of our schools lightly,” Patton said Wednesday. “Any threat against our children, in the environment we are living, is cause for immediate concern and action.”
He said he could not have been more pleased with how the district responded and with how quickly investigators were able to connect the North Union suspect with the other threats.
Patton said officials will review the entire incident to see if things can be done better in the future.
“The response and collaboration between the North Union school staff, Richwood Police Department, Sheriff’s Office, the Ohio State Highway Patrol HUB, the Ohio Department of Homeland Security and the Northern Union County Fire and EMS District at this incident was excellent,” Patton said.
Officials believe it has been more than five years since there has been a bomb threat in a Union County school. Patton said he believes there is a variety of reasons why bomb threats are rare. He said the biggest is that students know a bomb threat prank will not be taken lightly. Additionally, he said most people know how quickly phone calls can be traced, and cited this case as evidence.
“You have to give credit to our kids. They are smart,” Patton said.