Oelwein Man Threatens to Blow Up…What?!?

On April 20th, local authorities responded to a strange and dangerous report from a super shopping center in Independence

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Independence police received a call about a possible threat of terrorism from the Walmart located at the 200 block of Enterprise Drive, according to a report from KCRG.

Officials say that a man called up the pharmacy and threatened to shoot everyone and blow up the store. Witnesses said that two employees received calls from this individual.

One of the employees claimed that the caller said something like “how they would not care if somebody inside was stealing, so he may as well come in and steal.”

During this man's interactions with employees he would continuously shout expletives and racist slurs, according to reports.

When an officer arrived on the scene, the man called back and spoke with him. Once he revealed that he was law enforcement the man on the other end again started yelling and called him a racial slur, according to a report from the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.

Law enforcement was able to track the calls and identified the owener of the phone to be 48-year-old Shawn Armstrong.

Armstrong was arrested by the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office and taken to the Buchanan County Jail.

The Oelwein man is now facing multiple charges which include:

• Threats of Terrorism
• Threat of Explosive or Incendiary Device
• Harassment in the First Degree

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