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Staff Photo by Allison Kwesell Rhea County School students board buses on 3rd Street in front of Dayton's First Baptist Church Tuesday. Students were evacuated from schools after an apparent bomb threat.
Police in Dayton, Tenn., police and the FBI are pursuing leads after a note found on a bank door threatened bombings if a “large sum of money” was not delivered.
Three schools were evacuated and classes dismissed this morning after Dayton police responded to a call that a typed note posted on the First Bank of Tennessee front door said six bombs would blow up if money was not placed outside the bank.
Dayton police Chief Chris Sneed said a bank employee discovered the note at about 7:50 a.m. Bank cameras captured images of someone posting the note just 10 minutes before. The cameras also recorded what is believed to be a red 1991-2000 Mercury Mountaineer leaving the parking lot at the same time.
Footage from the camera is being examined, and the chief did not have a close description available of the suspect early this afternoon.
“(The note) said they left an explosive device at the bank and at six other locations, three of which were at schools,” Chief Sneed said.
Dayton City School, Rhea Central Elementary School and Calvary Baptist School were evacuated, other schools in the county were dismissed for the day by 11 a.m.
The chief said no explosive devices or anything resembling an explosive device has been found.
The FBI are on the scene assisting the Dayton police and Rhea County Sheriff’s Office in the investigation.
If you have information regarding the incident, you may contact Dayton police at 423-775-8403.
Todd South covers courts and the military for the Times Free Press. He has worked at the paper for three years and previously covered crime and safety in Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia. Todd’s hometown is Dodge City, Kan. He served five years in the U.S. Marine Corps and deployed to Iraq before returning to school for his journalism degree from the University of Georgia. Todd previously worked at the Anniston (Ala.) Star. Contact Todd ...
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