An Alabama sheriff’s office learned Sunday afternoon that a Volusia County man had threatened the agency and was driving north from Florida, heading its way.
The man, Michael David Kinney, was in Jacksonville when the Limestone County Sherriff’s Office got word of the threat and sought help from other police departments, the FBI and ATF, according to the sheriff’s office Facebook page.
Hours later, the 50-year-old from Orange City was arrested when Alabama state troopers spotted him on an interstate, stopped his vehicle and arrested him on charges of making a “terrorist threat,” the Facebook message posted Monday said.
The sheriff’s office post did not provide details about Kinney’s threat, but an Alabama television station reported it involved explosives. A bomb squad searched his car, however, and did not find any explosives, the ABC affiliate said.
His arrest blocked traffic on I-65 for about two hours, the station said.
Kinney was about an hour into a planned 10-hour, 670 mile drive to Limestone County when then sheriff’s office learned of his threat. He was arrested in Morgan County about 25 miles from Limestone, the TV station said.
Kinney had lived in Limestone County previously and “had previous interaction with the Limestone County Sheriff’s Office in 2015,” the agency said on Facebook.
“Based on the concerns of those in Florida, and the specific threats made,” the sheriff’s office said it contacted other agencies to assist in finding Kinney on Sunday. The office did not say who alerted it to the threats.
Kinney was being held Monday in the Limestone County Detention Center and no bond had been set.
lpostal@orlandosentinel.com
