LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A man was sentenced to nearly 3 years in federal prison after a downtown Louisville bomb threat hoax last summer.
Accoridng to court documents, 50-year-old Jimmy Smith Jr. was sentenced to 2 years and 9 months in federal prison followed by a 3-year term of supervised release for providing false information and a bomb threat hoax.
On Aug. 12, 2022, Smith placed a package labeled as "bomb" in a high-traffic, business area near the riverfront. Smith took cylinders out of a dumpster in the 200 block of East Market Street to create the device.
The device was found at a TARC bus stop at 5th and Jefferson, and Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) bomb squad dismantled the device and ruled that it wasn't operational. However, a significant area of downtown had to be shut down for several hours to clear the device.
“Hoax devices are not a joke. They take law enforcement's precious time and resources away from our community. This arrest is a great example of LMPD and FBI Louisville working together to quickly identify the person responsible for the August 12th suspicious package. And, special thanks to the FBI Laboratory for its quick work in linking Smith, Jr. to this device,” Jodi Cohen, former special agent in charge for FBI Louisville, said in a statement back in September.
This case was investigated by the FBI and LMPD.
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