SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The Ohio town at the center of a culture war over debunked claims about Haitian migrants was forced to close City Hall on Thursday after it received a bomb threat, it announced on its website and social media channels.
The bomb threat "was issued to multiple facilities throughout Springfield,” the city said. “We ask the community to avoid the area surrounding City Hall vicinity while the investigation is ongoing and to report any suspicious activity to the Springfield Police Division.”
In a press conference Thursday afternoon, Springfield police said that at least 6 buildings, including an elementary school, were closed and investigated as a result of the threat.
It wasn’t immediately clear who made the bomb threat or if it was credible. Police said they are collaborating with the FBI in their investigation. The mayor’s office did not answer a call Thursday and its voicemail box was full.
The city’s mayor, Rob Rue, indicated Thursday that the threat included complaints about Haitian migrants in the city, according to the Springfield News-Sun.
Springfield has recently been thrust into the national political culture war as conservative influencers and Republican politicians have repeated a debunked claim that immigrants from Haiti have been stealing and eating pets.
The Springfield Police Division told NBC News on Monday that “there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”
Rue said at a City Commission meeting Tuesday that the claims were false. “Rumors like these are taking away from the real issues such as housing concerns, resources needed for our schools and our overwhelmed health care system,” he said.
That hasn’t stopped Republicans from repeating and joking about it. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, the GOP vice presidential nominee, wrote on X Monday that “people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, posted a picture on X of two cats with the caption: “Please vote for Trump so Haitian immigrants don’t eat us.”
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In a viral moment in his debate Tuesday against Vice President Kamala Harris, Republican nominee Donald Trump repeated the claim. “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats," he said. "They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
When ABC News anchor and debate co-moderator David Muir told Trump that Springfield’s city manager had said there were no credible reports of pets being harmed by immigrants, Trump replied that he had seen the claim on TV.
“The people on television said their dog was eaten by the people that went there,” Trump said.
The president of Springfield’s nonprofit Haitian Community Help and Support Center, Viles Dorsainvil, told NBC News on Wednesday that the recent vitriol aimed at Haitians in Springfield has them “scared for their lives.”
Denise Williams, president of Springfield's NAACP chapter, said in an interview Thursday that the bomb threat had sent a wave of concern through the community. She said her family pulled her two grandchildren out of school after the news of the threat circulated.
“I’ve been in the city for years. I raised my children here. I’ve never seen anything like this, and I’ve never seen anything like this in my whole career of doing what I do, never,” Williams said. "I am absolutely disgusted with all of this."
Alicia Victoria Lozano reported from Springfield and Kevin Collier from New York.
