Putnam County Sheriff Eddie Farris said federal investigators believe they have identified a nationwide group of individuals believed to be responsible for the bomb threat that targeted Cane Creek Elementary School on Friday.
Farris said the agency is working with federal partners to track a group that has been making similar swatting calls to schools and courthouses across the United States. Farris said the investigation into the hoax call has expanded beyond Tennessee as the FBI identifies leads in several other states including Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Iowa, and Arizona.
“We feel confident that at some point in time, hopefully in the near future, that a group of individuals will be brought to justice regarding these kind of calls, not just here in Putnam County, but these calls have been going across the country here in the United States,” Farris said. “And so, speaking and working with our federal partners, we feel confident that at some point in the near future that folks will be arrested and brought to justice for this act.”
Farris said the investigation involves more than one person and likely includes suspects located several states away who may be juveniles. Farris said the caller remained on the phone for over an hour with a school resource deputy, providing law enforcement with significant evidence to analyze.
“If we were talking about a single individual it would be easier, but there’s other things involved during investigation that things’ll have to get done beforehand and there’s, I think, not just one individual, but a group of folks involved,” Farris said. “But I do feel confident that in the near future that we’ll be hearing some news and I’ll certainly pass that along to you and all the listeners here in Putnam County, be glad to.”
Farris said the department is utilizing technology to analyze the voice of the caller and determine if the call was computer-generated. Farris said the same group is suspected of calling in a separate bomb threat to the Putnam County courthouse just a few days prior.
“I do wish at some point in time that the state and the federal government would have some mandatory sentencing on these kind of things to where you got caught and found guilty that you served a minimum amount of time,” Farris said. “I do think that would slow some of this down, so we’ll see if that’s something in the future that some of our lawmakers can get done.”
Farris said the Friday morning threat began around 9:20am when an individual claimed to have planted explosives both inside and outside the school. Farris said students and faculty were evacuated to the Cane Creek Recreational Park gym while a K9 bomb dog conducted a sweep that found no evidence of explosives.
“I wish I could say this’ll be the last time that happens, it won’t be,” Farris said. “But I will say as we put out in our press release, you know we take all of these threats seriously and no matter where the threat’s at, whether a hoax call is, we take it serious and we’ll do everything that we know to do professionally to make sure students and all the other folks here in this county are safe during those type of calls until we can put them to rest.”
Farris said he has been working with lobbyists in Tennessee to advocate for mandatory minimum sentencing for individuals who make hoax threats.
