Package Only A Salad Shooter

The King County Courthouse was evacuated and several downtown streets were closed Thursday afternoon after a suspicious package was found inside the courthouse mail room, police said.

A member of the bomb squad used a water cannon to destroy the package and discovered that it contained a kitchen appliance, police said.

The Salad Shooter, which had been addressed to a judge, could not be identified under an X-ray, county police spokeswoman Joanne Elledge said.

The name of the judge was not released.

The evacuation began shortly after 1:30 p.m., and hundreds of courthouse employees and jurors were sent out into the streets.

“All of us panicked and ran out as fast as we could,” said Gail Swain, a courthouse employee.

A two-block stretch of Fourth Avenue near the courthouse entrance was closed for more than three hours before the package mystery was solved, Elledge said.

“We have to take it seriously,” King County Council member Larry Phillips told KIRO-TV. “The state of affairs right now in this country is such that you have to do that, so we have to take every precaution and keep people safe.

“But on the other hand, it’s very disruptive and it’s tough,” Phillips added.

The courthouse contains courtrooms and county offices.