An early afternoon bomb threat to a Benton Township Mosque has landed a New Buffalo man in jail after he was arrested a short time later at the Fairplain Plaza.
Benton Townshhip Police Detective Sgt. Michael DenDooven says the unidentified 38 year old man from New Buffalo was taken into custody not long after officers investigated a bomb threat that had been called in regarding the Islamic Association of Southwest Michigan Mosque located at 1381 E. Napier in the Township shortly before 2pm today, Friday, April 26th.
DenDooven says his department responded to the Mosque and made contact with several people worshiping there. They were unaware of the bomb threat, nevertheless, officers evacuated the sanctuary, officers secured the building and conducted a search but came up empty handed, “finding no incendiary device on the premises.”
Once the building was deemed safe for worshipers to resume their ritual, a leader of the Mosque told authorities of a potential suspect who had recently visited the building. That man was found a short while later at the Fairplain Plaza and detained. Once officers garnered a confession from the man and matched his cell phone number to the identification center at Berrien County Central Dispatch, he was arrested on charges of making a false bomb threat and taken into custody. He is being held at the Berrien County Jail pending arraignment on the charges.
