Bomb Threat Made at Courthouse Near Fort Hood

Someone threatened to bomb a county courthouse near Fort Hood unless officials met the “demands” of the Army psychiatrist charged in the 2009 shooting rampage on the Texas Army post, a sheriff said Wednesday.

After the Wednesday morning call that mentioned Maj. Nidal Hasan, law officers evacuated the historic courthouse and Bell County Justice Center, but found nothing after searching extensively with bomb-sniffing dogs, Bell County Sheriff Eddy Lange said. The jail was put on lockdown.

Employees were allowed back inside the buildings a few hours later. The time that the caller said the bomb would explode at the courthouse had long expired, said city of Belton spokesman Paul Romer.

Bell County has a contract with nearby Fort Hood to house all of its defendants, including Hasan, because the Army post does not have holding facilities. Lange said this was the first threat related to Hasan, and it came a day after a military judge who reviewed the security plans for Hasan’s murder trial said she was unaware of any threat to any individual or group.