City Hall Bomb Threat Prompts Brief Evacuation

"We learned that a person called several times expressing that a bomb was going to go off within the building," said Mayor Ted Wheeler.

Portland City Hall with Portland Building at right. (Beth Slovic)
By Hannah Chinn

On Tuesday, just after noon, Portland City Hall was closed and evacuated for about an hour.

At 12:15 p.m., Portland police responded to a bomb threat call at City Hall in downtown. They closed the building, called for an evacuation, and asked that visitors avoid the area while they determined the credibility of the threat.

At 1:13 p.m., the Portland Police Bureau said in a statement that security personnel had searched the building and did not find anything suspicious on the premises.

City Hall is now open for regular operations.

"We learned that a person called several times expressing that a bomb was going to go off within the building," Mayor Ted Wheeler in a statement. "City Hall Security, as well as the Portland Police Bureau, responded swiftly and checked the building thoroughly….At this point, we don't know if the threat was in response to the protests over the weekend."

Wheeler also said this fit into a pattern.

"These threats of violence are alarming and create a sense of fear that no one should experience, but unfortunately, this is increasingly becoming a reality in local government," Wheeler said.

On July 1, the mayor’s chief-of-staff Kristin Dennis received a different emailed threat.
The sender, who parrots far-right talking points about leftist demonstrators, threatened “Antifa, and all who have enabled them,” suggesting he was motivated by national and local news headlines about violent protests in Portland on June 29. 

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