MELBOURNE, VIC. — Crime Investigation Unit (CIU) detectives today charged a 31-year-old man of no fixed address in relation to a threat made via telephone yesterday, Thursday, May 21.
Police allege the man made a phone call to a media outlet in Sydney, making a threat of an incident taking place on Bourke Street.
That outlet immediately contacted Crime Stoppers, and as a result, Victoria Police commenced an investigation.
Uniform police, the Public Order Response Team (PORT) and the Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) increased CBD patrols.
The man was later arrested at a fast-food restaurant on Swanston Street by the Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) just after 7.30 pm, without further incident.
Police alleged that the man had a knife at the time of his arrest.
He has subsequently been charged with several offences, including:
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- Using a carriage service to menace;
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- Making threats to kill;
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- Making threats to inflict serious injury and
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- Carrying a controlled weapon without a lawful excuse.
Speaking on Thursday evening, Inspector Dale Huntingdon said Victoria Police would work with the council on why the message was sent out.
He said police had deemed it unnecessary to alert the wider public.
“We work with the council quite closely with the safe city cameras, which we use quite often,” he said.
“We’ll work with the council about how that message went out because it wasn’t a police [issued] message to go out to all. We have the capability to do that.
“At no stage was the public in the CBD, or coming into the CBD, at any time threatened … the CBD was quite safe during this period.”
In a statement, the City of Melbourne said: “Following a credible warning from Victoria Police, we sent the text message as a precaution to protect our staff.
“We make no apologies for that,” they said.
He appeared before the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court this morning.
The outcome of that hearing is currently unknown.
