An Augusta man has been indicted on federal charges for threatening to blow up the Social Security office on Robert C. Daniel Jr. Parkway Oct. 10.
Keyon Tishaye Dickens, 38, was indicted for using a phone to make a threat to injure a person or damage a building using explosives and two counts of providing false information in a bomb hoax, said U.S. Attorney Jill E. Steinberg of the Southern District of Georgia.
Dickens, who has convictions for terroristic threats, domestic violence and obstruction, is accused of calling the social security administration office Oct. 10 and threatening to use an explosive device to harm the building and workers.
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Later that day, he went to the office with a bookbag and displayed a note with the handwritten message, “I have a bomb.”
The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad was called the office to clear the threat and found no explosives. Deputies arrested Dickens and referred the case to the FBI.
“We take seriously any threats of violence against government employees or other workers,” Steinberg said. “Actions intended to frighten and intimidate innocent people will not be tolerated.”
The phone charge carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, while the hoax counts carry a penalty of up to five years each. There is no parole in the federal system.
The case is being investigated by the FBI, the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General and the sheriff’s office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney George J.C. Jacobs III.
