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Police arrested a man Wednesday evening after he threatened to blow up the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center. The man is an employee of the catering service used by the alumni center.
Roger Wade, spokesman for the Travis County Sheriff's Office, said University police issued a warrant Wednesday for the arrest of Jesse Joe Lara III. An anonymous tip led sheriff's office officals to find and arrest Lara while he was walking near his home in Pflugerville. He is charged with terroristic threat and possession of marijuana and is held on $20,500 bond, Wade said.
Lara faces a third-degree felony if convicted for a terroristic threat and could receive up to 10 to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Lara incurred the possession of marijuana charge because he was carrying a bag of the drug when he was arrested, said UTPD Sgt. L. Glass.
According to a police affidavit, Lara went to the alumni center Aug. 1 to pick up a paycheck. A staff member told Lara his paycheck was not ready, and Lara walked out to the center's patio and "angrily announced to several people that his check was not ready," according to the affidavit. After walking back inside and being told his paycheck would not be ready for an hour, Lara walked back onto the patio and told a friend he would come back and blow up the building, stating that his friends made C-4 plastic explosives, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit also states that Lara gestured to his friend as if he had a gun in his backpack.
When Lara left the center, his friend called the police, who came to the building and stayed on site until the office was closed.
Violent attacks that have occurred globally in recent years have led police to treat similar threats seriously, Glass said.
"We take all threats on this campus very seriously and investigate them all," Glass said. "We would rather investigate things that don't turn out than to miss that one thing that ends up happening and somebody gets hurt."
A trial date for the case has not been set.
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