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Police: Man arrested after threatening to blow up Kroger

The man was taken into custody without injury.

A man who threatened to blow up a Kroger grocery store on Flat Shoals Road was taken into custody after an hours-long standoff Thursday morning, officials confirmed. The Kroger store reopened just before 1:30 p.m.

Authorities received notification of the bomb threat at the Kroger in DeKalb County early Thursday morning, according to dispatchers. Police were on the scene negotiating with the unidentified man just before 8 a.m. 

Hamilton Traylor with DeKalb Police said that the man was standing near a propane tank in front of the Kroger telling authorities that he had a bomb. Traylor said the man was threatening to blow the place up.  

A Kroger employee who arrived on the scene for work said she didn't know what was going on and that she had not been in touch with any of her managers.

The DeKalb Police Bomb Squad truck was spotted at the scene and the shopping center was evacuated early Thursday. 

A Chapel Hill Middle & Elementary school parent told 11Alive that those nearby schools were on a level one lock down. 

"You can't put these kids lives in danger, we send our kids to school every morning, we in a safe place, this is a nice neighborhood, this is a quiet neighborhood, we don't get all this around here, and for it to be a bomb threat, this is very serious, very serious," said parent Shawnte Penn.

The unidentified man is being charged with making terroristic threats, according to Traylor. SWAT took the man into custody using "less-lethal measures" and without injury.

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