SEATTLE - A 35-year-old Seattle man is under arrest for allegedly sending threatening letters to the Seattle Times. The FBI is also investigating if he was involved in an apparent pipe bomb incident last weekend.
No one was injured, but the events were clearly designed to evoke fear.
In early October, the hazmat team was called to the Seattle Times building in downtown Seattle two days in a row. The newspaper had received threatening letters filled with a mysterious white powder that was later deemed not to be dangerous.
The FBI served a search warrant at the Willows Court Apartments in North Seattle earlier this week in connection to that investigation.
"Eight black SUV's pull in to our street and then park, and then two police cards block each end of the street," says Kelsey Wilson, who lives in the same apartment complex. "They were all wearing FBI shirts and their badges and bullet proof vests and they were carrying a battering ram."
Friday, 35-year-old Jason Steadman, whose last name was found on the apartment directory, was arrested in West Seattle. A woman who answered the phone at his apartment issued a "no comment."
KING 5 has learned federal authorities are also investigating whether the suspect was involved in an incident in Bothell last weekend. When a Seattle Times delivery truck driver discovered a suspicious device looking like a pipe bomb in a newspaper box on Main Street.
Neither the FBI or the Seattle Times would discuss a possible motive for these crimes. The newspaper's spokesperson, Jill Mackie, issued this statement: "We are pleased to hear an arrest has been made. We hope this puts an end to these disturbing incidents."
Steadman will be arraigned in federal court on Monday.
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