Day care worker admitted making bomb and drive-by shooting threats, investigator testifies

On the day she was charged with making bomb threats against the Macon day care center where she worked, a woman also posted a threat on Facebook saying the center would be shot up in a drive-by shooting, a Bibb County Sheriff’s Office investigator testified Tuesday.

While in custody, 26-year-old Jasmine Jaquel Bradley admitted she made bomb threats at the Child Care Network on Northside Drive on April 19 and 24, and admitted making the drive-by shooting threat Thursday, investigator Leroy Howard said.

Bradley, dressed in a Butts County jail jumpsuit, wept after a federal magistrate ruled she’ll be detained while her case proceeds toward an indictment. The case is set to be presented to federal grand jurors next week.

She is charged with making interstate bomb threats, threatening interstate communications and conveying false information and perpetuating a hoax against Child Care Network, offenses that could put Bradley in prison for up to 20 years if she’s convicted.

Bradley was arrested during an investigation of multiple bomb threats at Bright Star Learning Centers and the Child Care Network dating back to January.

Bibb County deputies, who have been working with the FBI on the case, responded to the Child Care Network April 19 after the center’s director received a text message threatening that a bomb was on the premises. A box with tape, wires and an attached microchip was spotted on the center’s property.

Children were evacuated from the center. Bradley — a worker at the center who had been with the children who were evacuated — told authorities she saw a man throw the box over a fence and drive off, Howard testified.

She gave a description of the man and deputies searched the area looking for him. The sheriff’s office bomb squad determined the box wasn’t a bomb, he said.

No one else reported seeing the man, Howard said.

On the night of April 24, another threat was posted to the center’s Facebook page threatening a bomb would go off at the center the following day, he said.

A bomb sniffing dog swept the center’s property, looking for a device that night, but nothing was found. The center was closed April 25 as a precaution, Howard said.

Authorities were getting ready to leave to arrest Bradley when they learned of the drive-by shooting threat at the center Thursday, he said.

Bradley’s cellphone number has been linked to at least one of the threats posted to Facebook, Howard said.

In arguing for a bond to be set for Bradley, her lawyer, Doye Green, argued that although Bradley has been arrested on misdemeanor charges in the past, she’s never been convicted of a crime.

There’s no evidence she knew how to make a bomb or knew someone who could make one. No guns or bullets were found, he said.

Green said Bradley is the mother of a 4-year-old child. Most of her family lives in Macon. Her parents and other family members sat in the courtroom Tuesday.

Federal prosecutor Shanelle Booker argued “the community will be much safer with her in custody,” citing the escalation of the threats.

“We go from bombs to bullets flying,” she said.

This story was originally published May 2, 2017 at 4:51 PM with the headline "Day care worker admitted making bomb and drive-by shooting threats, investigator testifies."