Quick-thinking officer nabs man suspected of City Hall bomb threat

A man arrested following a bomb scare at City Hall last week was found because of some quick thinking by a Wichita police officer.

Joseph K. Cavender, 42, of Wichita was arrested and booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on Saturday afternoon on suspicion of felony charges of criminal threat and terrorism, according to jail records.

According to police records, a bomb threat was called in at 9:15 a.m. Friday to the Wichita City Hall building, 455 N. Main. Sgt. Nikki Woodrow of the Wichita Police Department said Tuesday that the caller indicated that a bomb had been placed at City Hall.

The building was checked Friday and no explosive devices were found, Woodrow said. Upon investigation after the threat, Woodrow said, police were able to pinpoint the phone number used by the caller, but not the owner of the phone.

On Saturday, while on an unrelated disturbance call in the 1000 block of South Topeka, a person at the scene gave an officer their phone number, which the officer recognized as the number involved in Friday’s bomb threat.

Woodrow said the officer had been working the bomb threat case prior to being dispatched to the disturbance call. Woodrow said Cavender did not make the disturbance call on Saturday.

This story was originally published February 21, 2017 at 11:47 AM with the headline "Quick-thinking officer nabs man suspected of City Hall bomb threat."