Saturday bomb threat causes evacuation of Roanoke Walmart

Emergency responders flooded to Walmart in Roanoke Saturday, and a juvenile was arrested after reports of a bomb threat were called in to the Roanoke Police Department.

Employees and customers were seen leaving the store as police vehicles arrived around 8:45 p.m.

By 9 p.m. a heavy police presence and multiple fire trucks had arrived at the scene.

Officials closed the store and evacuated the building and the parking lot while they investigated the threat, which turned out to be a false alarm.

The sweep of the store was complete, and the all clear was given around 10:15 Saturday night.

According to Roanoke police chief Jonathan Caldwell, a 16-year-old male juvenile got on the employee walkie-talkie system in the store and made some sort of reference to a bomb being in the building. The threat did not go out over the public intercom, so it was not heard by customers.

Surveillance footage and a quick investigation led to the arrest later that night of the suspected juvenile, whose name was not released due to his age. He was charged with making terroristic threats, a Class C felony that carries a prison term of between 1 and 10 years if convicted.