A 50-year-old homeless man was arrested Monday evening after threatening to blow up and the in Shorewood.
The man — Shorewood police have indentified him as Thomas Yela — called an intervention center and then Milwaukee police and threatened to blow up the “Shorewood court” and an unknown assisted living facility at approximately 4:06 p.m., according to police.
Village Hall, 3930 N. Murray Ave., and the apartments were evacuated and Milwaukee County Sheriff’s bomb squad dogs combed the buildings.
"There was no bomb located by any dogs," Shorewood Police Chief David Banaszynski said. "The dogs went through both buildings."
Police say Yela is known to visit the apartments, which are located at 1700 and 1600 E. River Park Ct., at the corner of North Oakland Avenue and East Edgewood Avenue. They house elderly and disabled persons.
Shorewood police say they believe Yela acted alone.
Apartment residents were allowed to slowly filter back into the apartment buildings at approximately 6:30 p.m.
Police say the man's name came up on caller ID when he made the calls, and being known to police, he was spotted sitting on his bicycle outside the scene at the River Park apartments and subsequently taken into custody.
WTMJ-TV reported that the man is a former resident of the River Park Apartments. Banaszynski told Shorewood Patch that the man was not a resident there but his mother and girlfriend have been, but no longer live there. The resident wanted to prove that "management is wrong," according to the WTMJ report.
Witnesses said police entered the building with dogs shortly after it was evacuated. Shorewood, Whitefish Bay, Milwaukee and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee police were on the scene.
Milwaukee County Transit System buses were also on scene, providing a cool place for the elderly and disabled.
