UPDATED: Marcus High School student arrested in connection with bomb threat in Flower Mound

by Chris Roark of Star Local News

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The charges have been upgraded to a third degree felony.

FLOWER MOUND — The Flower Mound Police Department arrested 18-year-old Flower Mound resident Matt Pumphrey on Tuesday afternoon after connecting him to a bomb threat police say he made earlier in the day. Pumphrey is a student at Marcus High School.

Capt. Wendell Mitchell said the threat was just a hoax. The suspect is being charged with making a terroristic threat, a Class A misdemeanor.

[UPDATE: Later, the charges were upgraded to making a terroristic threat/impairing public/government service, which is a third degree felony. Pumphrey has been arraigned, and bond was set at $5,000.

"When we met with him and looked at the elements of this case, this fits a third degree felony," said Capt. Kurt Labhart.]

At 1:09 p.m., Flower Mound police received a report that a bomb threat was posted on a local Twitter user’s account from a person who saw the tweet.

Police say it’s unclear where the tweet was made.

Labhart said the Twitter message mentioned a red Acura in the town hall parking lot that would explode.

Flower Mound Town Hall, the Shirley Voirin Social Senior Center, and the Cross Timbers YMCA were evacuated at 1:30 p.m.

Mitchell said it is unclear what the motive was behind the threat, but he said the threat was just a hoax. Pumphrey told police it was just a joke.

“It had nothing to do with today being Election Day,” Mitchell said. “Town Hall was not a voting location. We don’t have a cause yet, and we’re still investigating.”

There have also been reports of a bomb threat made in Farmers Branch the same day, but Mitchell said those two incidents are not related.

Eastbound traffic on Cross Timbers Road was temporarily diverted by 1:40 p.m.

The evacuated buildings were re-opened at approximately 2:30 p.m.

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