Spokane Police have arrested a man for bringing a potentially explosive device into the offices of the Spokane County Democratic Party on Wednesday.
Whether it was a politically-motivated attack hasn’t officially been determined.
According to police, the man wearing a backpack walked into the Teamsters’ Union headquarters at Division and Indiana. It’s the building where the Democratic Party headquarters are located.
Police say the man indicated to a person inside that he had a bomb. Someone called police and when officers arrived, they convinced the man to come outside. Police say he left the backpack inside and, shortly after, smoke from a small fire came billowing out. The building was cleared, traffic nearby was blocked off and the man was arrested.
The police bomb squad investigated and found there was no bomb, but that the man had started the fire. His name has not yet been released, nor the charges he will face.
Though the police statement makes no reference to where the incident occurred, local Democrats say their office was targeted. In a virtual meeting Wednesday evening to which reporters were initially invited, party members were given more details and there was reference to a manifesto, the sheet of paper the man handed to a party volunteer.
Party chairwoman Nicole Bishop says she had reached out earlier in the day to local Republican leaders to ask if they would issue a unity statement to condemn the event.
On its Facebook page, the Spokane County Republican Party issued a statement that read in part, “Hate should never be tolerated and we will always denounce all forms of violence...We must as a community stand together against these types of attacks.”