Evacuees describe feelings after courthouse bomb threat
LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) -- Wednesday morning was a scary situation for many as the federal, district and city courthouse had to evacuate due a bomb threat.
Gerald Broussard, who was in the Lafayette Library at the time, said it was a frightening situation.
"It's scary. People are fearing for their life out here. You just have to stay in prayer. Keep God first,” said Broussard,
Over by the 15th Judicial District Courthouse, Judge Valerie Garrett was one of many evacuees.
“We were handling the revocation of the courthouse and then we were notified by the bailiffs to evacuate the courthouse because there was a bomb threat and so everybody was evacuated from the courthouse for safety precautions and our bailiffs took care of everything and the sheriff's deputy came in and they called the bomb squad,” Garrett explained.
Unsurprisingly, Garrett mentioned Wednesday morning's bomb threat wasn’t the first threat at the courthouse. Back in April of 2018 News 10 reported on the courthouse getting their security increased after they received a threat.
“I was a defense attorney at the time, now I'm a judicial officer. So it was a little different because you have to follow certain protocols but the most important thing for us all was to get the public out. We had some inmates in the courtroom, so safety is always the first precaution at the courthouse to make sure everybody's safe and that's what we did,” Garrett said.
Streets were blocked off near the three courthouse buildings as different law enforcement agencies swept the place making sure things were clear. Garrett said the chief judge suspended court until 1:00 p.m. to make sure all safety precautions were in place and everybody was safe to return to the courthouse.
“Well, when you've been at the courthouse long enough and you practice law long enough, things like this happen, it did not necessarily frighten me. I was more concerned about getting my staff and our people out of the courthouse and once we did that, we were good because we knew the bailiffs were on it and the sheriff's department was on it,” Garrett said. “Our law enforcement responds very quickly to those types of things and the safety precautions that they put in place are very good. So hats off to them. They did an excellent job in securing everybody.”
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