An Augusta man charged last week in connection with a series of bomb threats in the city also allegedly made a threat to the state’s busiest airport.
Troy Macdonald, 37, is charged with three counts of terrorizing for reportedly using a Twitter account to make multiple bomb threats to locations in Augusta, but Deputy Chief Jared Mills, of the Augusta police, said Tuesday that Macdonald also made a threat involving the Portland International Jetport.
Macdonald has not been charged in connection with the jetport threat. Mills said Macdonald, who was not arrested but issued summonses, is being charged in connection with three of the four threats in Augusta.
Macdonald, using a false name and the Twitter handle “SingleGuy479,” also reportedly sent the tweets to employees at television station WCSH, though it was not directly threatened. The station on Tuesday posted images of the tweets on its website. Macdonald, in almost all of the tweets, says his name is Nick Crocker, while claiming a bomb is at a specific location.
Mills said Macdonald has cooperated with investigators.
“We’re confident we know the reason why this happened,” Mills said. “That will be revealed in court.”
The first threat, on June 17, involved the Augusta Wal-Mart. The store also was targeted in two subsequent threats on June 18 and 20. The second threat also claimed there was a bomb at the Portland Jetport. The third threat also included a threat to the Augusta State Airport and the Blaine House. Mills said a bomb-sniffing dog from the Maine State Police was called to search the Blaine House, where Gov. Paul LePage lives with this family, but the other locations were cleared without the use of a dog.
The Maine State Police Computer Crime Unit assisted with the investigation, which Mills described as complicated. Information from the task force led investigators to those familiar with Macdonald. Detectives used information gathered during those interviews to zero in on Macdonald.
“There was a lot of great detective work,” Mills said.
Craig Crosby — 621-5642
Twitter: @CraigCrosby4
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