Staffers at the Royal Street headquarters of the state’s largest news website were sent scrambling into the street Monday morning after a phoned-in bomb threat prompted a full evacuation of the downtown Mobile building.
According to the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office, deputies arrested Anthony Joiner of 5065 Sweetbriar Lane in Eight Mile, charging him with making the threat as well as possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. Investigators have not laid out exactly why Joiner is believed responsible, but people familiar with the matter said the call is thought to have grown out of an argument in the publication’s online comment section.
Hours Outside the Building
The evacuation unfolded around 11 a.m., according to employees who spoke on condition of anonymity. At 12:17 p.m., staff received an email from site operator Tom Bates downplaying any immediate danger while directing everyone to keep working from outside the office for a few hours.
“As we continue to look into a phone call we received this morning, we are acting out of an abundance of caution in asking you to work from outside the office for a few hours,” Bates wrote, assuring staffers there was nothing direct or specific at play. Employees were finally cleared to return shortly before 5 p.m.
At least one staffer voiced frustration that leadership had shared little about the nature of the threat or whether any particular individual was targeted. Court records show Joiner previously faced a 2015 arrest for harassing communications.
Media Notes: New Editor at Mobile Bay Magazine
In other local media news, Maggie Bagwell Lacey was named executive editor of Mobile Bay Magazine in June, taking over from Lawren Wood Largue. The Point Clear native and McGill graduate — who holds a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt — started at MBM in October as food editor after earlier stints managing Fairhope’s Windmill Market, designing shoes in the New York fashion industry and working in marketing at the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson.