Curry courthouse evacuated for threat of suspicious package

CLOVIS — Law enforcement evacuated the Curry County Courthouse and closed off a two-block perimeter near downtown Clovis several hours Friday afternoon before a bomb squad determined a suspicious package found outside the Dan Buzzard Law Library was not an explosive device.

Sheriff Wesley Waller said the package, reported around 2 p.m. outside the building near Eighth and Mitchell streets, featured “suspicious characteristics.” Agencies including Clovis police and firefighters closed off the roads in one block each direction from Seventh and Mitchell streets.

Officials with Cannon Air Force Base’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal team were on scene with a bomb disposal robot before 4 p.m. and responders remained after 6 p.m. to conduct a secondary search of the area after evaluating the package.

“We will now conduct an investigation and attempt to determine (the package’s) origin,” Waller said.

Waller said a bomb threat called into the courthouse around 10:30 a.m. Friday was still under investigation, but that threat was evaluated in the morning and did not result in the building’s evacuation.

Officials did not immediately respond to questions about whether Friday's incidents may have been connected to reports early this week about "telephonic threats" that had resulted in three arrests.