Bomb Threat Suspect Tells Judge He's Off His Meds

Mental exam is ordered for Floyd Ray Roseberry
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Aug 20, 2021 5:10 PM CDT
Bomb Threat Suspect Tells Judge He's Off His Meds
North Carolina state troopers block Blacksburg Road in Grover, N.C., Thursday as authorities inspect the home of Floyd Ray Roseberry.   (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)

A man who claimed he had a bomb in a pickup truck near the US Capitol, prompting evacuations and an hourslong standoff with police, told a federal judge Friday he has not taken his "mind medication" and was ordered to undergo a mental competency hearing. Floyd Ray Roseberry appeared before a federal magistrate judge in Washington and was charged with threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to use an explosive device, the AP reports. If convicted, he could face a sentence of up to life in prison. Roseberry drove a black pickup truck onto the sidewalk outside the Library of Congress around 9:15am Thursday, police said, and began shouting to people in the street that he had a bomb. He later made the same threats to officers and professed a litany of antigovernment grievances as part of an episode that he livestreamed on Facebook.

Roseberry surrendered after about five hours. Police later searched the vehicle and said they did not find a bomb but did collect possible bomb-making materials. In the hearing Friday, Roseberry, 49, of Grover, North Carolina, told the judge he couldn't fully understand what was happening because he had been denied medication while he was in custody. Roseberry said he had not received medication for his blood pressure and his "mind medicine." Roseberry said he had “been denied it for the last week I’ve been here,” but later said it had been two days. He was taken into police custody about 24 hours before he appeared in court. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui ordered Roseberry to undergo a competency hearing and ordered him detained without bond. Roseberry is due back in court Wednesday.

(More bomb threat stories.)

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