Philadelphia City Hall was evacuated and City Council was abruptly adjourned on Thursday after sheriff’s deputies alerted officials to a suspicious package in Council, Council President Kenyatta Johnson said.
Johnson told The Inquirer at about 11:45 a.m. that sheriff’s deputies were investigating the package found on the floor where Council members were holding their first meeting of the fall session. A bomb squad was called, and dogs signaled an alert on the package, he said.
Police said the package was examined and determined not to contain a device, and the scene was cleared. No injuries were reported.
All 17 Council members, their staffers, journalists, and members of the public were evacuated from the building. Managing Director Carlton Williams said Mayor Cherelle L. Parker is safe and that she was not in the building when the package was discovered.
People who evacuated were permitted to reenter City Hall shortly before 1 p.m. Council was scheduled to reconvene shortly after, according to Vincent Thompson, a spokesperson for Johnson.
Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore told reporters at the scene that no one was charged in connection with the incident.
Vanore said two police dogs alerted officers to something suspicious in the bag, but he said it’s possible nothing nefarious occurred. The bag, he said, could have had residue from a firearm or fireworks that had been in it within the past several days.
As chambers were being evacuated, officers detained and removed a government employee. The employee spoke to a reporter while in handcuffs.
He said he believed it was his package that was at the center of the ordeal.
“I think it’s my bag that I left on the chair,” he said.
He said it was not a bomb.
Outside City Hall, members of Council and government employees milled about, many calmly speculating on the origin of the threat or lack thereof.
Councilmember Jim Harrity, a Democrat known as one of the chamber’s more colorful members, said plainly: “Hopefully it turns out to be not a bomb, but something else.”