Dallas police cordoned off a busy section of downtown on Tuesday after spotting a suspicious SUV parked in the middle of the road near the West End district, prompting a campus lockdown and major traffic delays.
Officers responded around noon to the intersection of Lamar and Elm streets after reports of a suspicious package visible inside the SUV. The Dallas Police Explosive Ordnance Disposal team was called to the scene out of caution, and the nearby Dallas College El Centro campus was placed on lockdown.
The bomb squad used a controlled charge to breach the rear lift gate. Investigators then recovered a sword from inside the vehicle. No explosives or other threats were found.
An all-clear was issued at 1:30 p.m., ending the lockdown and reopening roads, though the investigation remains ongoing.
Sixty-five-year-old William Hemphill was taken into custody and faces charges related to obstructing the roadway.
Shaleya Jewell, who works downtown and was nearby when officers arrived, said the SUV stood out immediately, as it was parked in a walkway area.
“And so we had to kind of go around it,” she said, Fox 4 KDFW reported. “We just know when we walked past, they had no idea what was going on with the vehicle. We saw it was in a weird spot and all of the windows were down, and they were really trying to keep everyone away from it.”
