Lt. Gov. Gilchrist says bomb squad searched his Detroit home after ‘credible’ threat
East Lansing — Michigan’s lieutenant governor said his family home in Detroit was the target of a “credible bomb threat” on Thursday.
Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II, a Democrat, said Friday he was told that the bomb threat came in the form of an email and phone message that said an explosive device would be connected to the door of his apartment building in Detroit’s Corktown, where his family lives in a loft.
Gilchrist has other neighbors in the building, and it’s in the proximity of a school and a church, he said.
Bomb squads from the Detroit Police Department and Michigan State Police checked the building and found no explosive devices, Gilchrist said.
The FBI is now involved in the investigation, he said.
“This is an interagency effort to make sure that we understand it, can get to the bottom of it, and that ultimately, who carried this out will be held accountable,” Gilchrist said Friday during a taping of WKAR-TV’s “Off The Record.” “And that’s ultimately what’s important.”
The FBI and Detroit police have not responded to messages for comment about how the threat was received or the status of the investigation.
Michigan State Police spokeswoman Shanon Banner confirmed a bomb squad was sent to Gilchrist’s home.
Separately, Banner said, the state police bomb squad also responded Thursday to a threat made on the Southfield home of state Sen. Jeremy Moss, a Democrat running for Congress in the 11th District in Oakland County.
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The bomb threat to the Gilchrist home came one day after an assassin killed conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at an outdoor event at Utah Valley University. And it comes on the heels of the former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband being shot dead by a man who is also accused of shooting and wounding a Minnesota lawmaker and his wife.
“This is ridiculous that this is part of the life of public service, that this is where our system has gotten so broken, where these kinds of threats or things that have happened to people across Michigan have happened to people across America,” Gilchrist said Friday. “It’s unacceptable.”
Gilchrist, a Democrat running for governor, joined officials from both sides of the ideological divide to condemn political violence.
The lieutenant governor said he received “a message” from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who was the target of a foiled kidnapping plot five years ago, and a phone call from Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, whose home was set on fire in April by an arsonist while he and his family were inside sleeping.
A father of three elementary and middle school-aged children, Gilchrist thanked law enforcement for quickly investigating the bomb threat at his family home.
The lieutenant governor said he’s been focused on explaining what happened to his children and ensuring his wife, Ellen, “has the peace of mind that our home is going to be cared for and it’s going to be safe and going to be looked out for.”
“It’s hard to be grounded when that ground has been shaken,” Gilchrist said Friday. “And so we’re working to make sure that’s good for our family.”
In a statement Thursday night, Gilchrist also acknowledged the unease after a single gunshot killed Kirk at a public event.
“I know that people are on edge — it’s a scary time,” Gilchrist said Thursday. “This incident came just a day after the murder of Charlie Kirk and in the midst of an escalating pattern of political violence in Michigan and in America. The purpose of this violence is to silence, intimidate, and eliminate people and their voices from our society. That won’t work on me. We cannot let this remain our reality.”