AUGUSTA, Ga. — A federal grand jury indicted an Augusta man for allegedly making a bomb threat against a Social Security Administration Office in early October.
Keyon Tishaye Dickens, 38, called the SSA office in Augusta on Oct. 10, threatening to blow up the building with an explosive device, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said Dickens then came to the office, where he showed a security officer a handwritten message reading “I have a bomb.”
The security officer called the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office and the building was locked down and then evacuated, USAO said.
After no bomb was found, deputies took Dickens into custody, according to the Department of Justice.
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Dickens, who is currently in custody at the Jefferson County Detention Center, was indicted for using a phone to make a threat to injure a person or damage a building with explosives and two counts of false information and bomb hoax, according to Jill E. Steinberg, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.
“We take seriously any threats of violence against government employees or other workers,” Steinberg said in a statement. “Actions intended to frighten and intimidate innocent people will not be tolerated.”
The phone charge alone has a statutory penalty, if convicted, of up to 10 years in prison, while each bomb hoax charge has a maximum five year prison term, if Dickens is convicted.
Should Dickens be convicted, he’ll also have to serve a period of supervised release after leaving prison, according to the USAO.
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