Richland Walmart evacuated for bomb threat
The Walmart in Richland and an adjoining strip mall were evacuated for a little more than an hour Sunday when officials were alerted to some "suspicious packages."
The situation turned out to be a false alarm, but precautions must be taken, police said.
Lt. Dave Williams said police got a call about a possible bomb in Walmart around 12:37 p.m. A customer had advised Walmart management that two men had come into the store carrying a backpack and a briefcase, and that they had left the store shortly after without those parcels.
A witness told officials she thought she'd heard someone say something about a bomb.
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The store and the parking lot, as well as a strip mall were evacuated until officials could pin down whether there was an actual threat.
Williams said the two men were identified. They had a display set up on the grocery side of the store, and they had walked in, put their belongings under the table at the display, and left for lunch. When they came back, the store had been evacuated.
Police and one of the men went back into the store and the packages were opened and determined to be harmless. Walmart management opted to allow shoppers back into the store at that point.
Rankin County's bomb robot and Clinton Police Department's bomb squad were both dispatched, as well as Flowood police, to aid Richland.
"Anytime there's any kind of threat, especially in 2016, we take every threat seriously," Williams said. "The civilians that told the managers what was going on, it's pertinent. The lady kept apologizing, and I told her we'd rather be called to 10,000 bad calls than somebody not call and it actually be something."
Officials urged citizens to remember as they go through their day that strange things raise their attention for a reason.
"If you see something and you're not sure what it is, call your local department. We'd rather it be nothing than be something and nobody say anything," Williams said. "Anything out of the ordinary. If you see anything that doesn't look normal to you, you can call. It's that simple. If it turns out to be nothing, it's nothing. That's what we're paid to do."
Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.