At least 33 bomb threats have been made in Springfield, Ohio, after false claims — made by former President Donald Trump and his running mate — surfaced about Haitian immigrants eating people’s pets, the governor said.
All threats have been found to be hoaxes. Some targeted Springfield schools, including elementary campuses, Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday at a news conference after meeting with city officials.
“Our children deserve to go to school. Parents deserve to feel that their children are educated and that their children are safe,” DeWine said.
Last week, schools in the city of about 58,000 people were evacuated after bomb threats. The city hall also received a threat to the city’s offices.
The threats come days after Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, circulated a false claim online that Haitian immigrants were causing problems in Springfield and that “Reports now show that people have kidnapped and eaten pets from people who shouldn’t be here on the ground.”
Trump repeated the false claim — which city officials and police have denied — on stage at an ABC presidential debate the next day.
“In Springfield, they eat dogs. The people that came in, they eat cats. They eat, they eat the pets of the people who live there,” Trump said in the interview.
Springfield police said they have no credible reports of immigrants harming people’s pets.
Mayor Rob Rue called it a “lie” being repeated online and called for it to stop.
DeWine said Monday that some of the threats come from overseas.
“Some of them come from one particular country,” he said. “We think this is, you know, another opportunity to mess with the United States. And they’re going to continue to do that.”
After the threat, tower cameras have been installed in Springfield, the state has deployed bomb-sniffing dogs and state law enforcement agencies are being dispatched to help respond, officials said.
“The people who are doing this are doing this to sow discord in our community and disrupt our ability to do our normal duties that we need to do,” said Andy Wilson, director of the state Department of Public Safety. “And we just can’t let them do that.”
There are 17 school district buildings in Springfield. The Highway Patrol conducts pre-school sweeps of every building regardless of whether they have been threatened, DeWine said. He called the move an “extraordinary step.”
“Our schools need to stay open. They will stay open,” DeWine said.
On Monday, the city government announced that its annual cultural festival downtown, scheduled for two days starting on September 27, would be canceled due to security concerns.
More than 15,000 Haitians live and work in Springfield. The U.S. government has granted Haitian immigrants temporary protected status because of the unrest in Haiti, including violent gangs ruling the streets.
DeWine, a Republican, advocated for Haitian immigrants working in Springfield.
He said Trump or Vance or other politicians have a right to talk about immigration and the problems at the US-Mexico border and that “it’s a legitimate thing.”
“However, I have work to do with the people who are here legally in Springfield and the community where people are commenting on them,” DeWine said. “I have a duty to speak.”
“After following what the mayor has said, what the city manager has said and what the police chief has said, we have no evidence of anyone eating anyone’s pets in Springfield, Ohio,” he later said at a news conference.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
