Suspect charged in bomb threats

The man said he wanted media attention.

STAFF REPORT

BOARDMAN — A Meadowbrook Avenue man faces multiple charges after being accused of threatening to detonate a bomb.

Jeremy Sweet, 31, didn’t have a bomb, but he is in the Mahoning County jail on felony charges of fleeing, extortion, hoax weapon of mass destruction, and making false alarms.

About 7:20 p.m. Wednesday, police got a 911 call from a man later identified as Sweet threatening to detonate C4 explosives he had wired to his car if his demands weren’t met. He said he was traveling west on U.S. Route 224.

Sweet told a dispatcher that teachers at an area school were teaching students how to make crack, and he wanted a high school student with a computer so he could expose the crimes, a police report said.

He said that if he didn’t get a student with a computer, he would detonate the bomb, hurting as many people as possible. He then ended the call.

Police determined that the cell phone used to make the call belonged to a relative of Sweet’s and found the home address. Sweet then called back reiterating his demand and said he was in front of a police car near Giant Eagle on U.S. Route 224.

The police officer ran a check on the license plate of a car in front of him, and it turned out to be Sweet’s. Other officers responded and followed Sweet as he went off the road over a curb to pass stopped traffic.

He went through a red light at South Avenue and around the devices police placed in the road to stop him. Sweet headed south on South.

He went around another officer with the devices at McClurg Road, continuing south in the northbound lane, causing several vehicles to move off the right side of the road to avoid a collision.

Sweet continued south on South, approaching the intersection of Western Reserve Road. He headed straight through the intersection, which was a dead end, stopping his car. Dispatch was talking to Sweet on his cell phone and told him to get out of the car and onto the ground. He did.

As police were reading Sweet his rights, he said he knew his rights and that he watched “Law and Order.” He said he had no bomb or weapons and that he made it up.

Officers from Youngstown’s Bomb Squad searched the vehicle and found no explosives.

Sweet told officers that he had been trying to get on Interstate 680 but went straight on South by mistake.

He said he was going to keep going until he saw news helicopters, the police report said.

Several times, Sweet told police he wasn’t crazy and that he didn’t want to hurt anyone.