The Hinds County Board of Supervisors evacuated the Hinds County Chancery Courthouse mid-meeting after someone called the Chancery Court building with a bomb threat at around 9 a.m. on Monday, Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones says. It was the second Monday in a row in which local officials had to evacuate a Hinds County courthouse due to a bomb threat.

“It’s an obvious threat that we have to take seriously, and we have to make sure that we address it. … But at the same time, it is obvious that these threats are disrupting county businesses (and) the flow of government,” Jones said in a press conference Monday. 

Jones approached the Hinds County Board of Supervisors to inform them of the threat just 12 minutes after the board meeting began on Monday, whispering the news to Board President Robert Graham. Graham paused the meeting and announced the evacuation shortly after Jones approached him. 

“Due to caution and safety protocol, we did deem it necessary to evacuate the facility and close all county entities within the building,” Jones said. 

In addition to pausing the Hinds County Board of Supervisors meeting, officials paused all Hinds County Chancery Court proceedings and also closed the county tax collector and tax assessor offices for evacuation. 

Bomb sniffing dogs from throughout the Jackson metropolitan area and the state searched the building, Jones said. The Hinds County Board of Supervisors returned to regular business after law enforcement deemed the building safe. 

“The nature of the call, the matter of the call and the manner of the call, are all under investigation right now,” Jones said in a press conference Monday. “We don’t have any suspect information other than the caller sounded like a male caller.”

The investigation for the Monday, April 13, bomb threat is also still ongoing. 

“We did make a little progress with identifying some evidence potentially linked to the last threat, but we’re not able to discuss it at this particular time,” the sheriff said. 

Jones and Graham were not available for further comment on the incident.

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Capital Bureau Reporter Grace E. Marion is covering the capital city, Jackson, as well as surrounding rural, urban and suburban areas in Hinds County, Madison County and Rankin County. She is a reporter and photojournalist with a passion for narrative writing and investigative reporting. Her work as a journalist has earned her coverage in publications like the Columbia Journalism Review, the Hechinger Report, and the Student Press Law Center. Grace is a member of the Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).

Grace graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media in 2022 with a degree in print and broadcast journalism, and from the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism in 2024.