Man Threatening to Blow Up Flagler Beach Pier and Shoot People Mobilizes Law Enforcement, Shutting Down A1A

The emergency has drawn numerous Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies and Flagler Beach police, along with the Flagler Beach Fire Department.

State Road A1A was blocked off at State Road 100 (Old Moody Boulevard), and northbound traffic at the south end of the pier was also being diverted at 7th Street South. The Sheriff’s Office was asking residents to avoid the area. An eyewitness at the scene described patrons being evacuated from the Funky Pelican’s back door earlier in the evening.

Flagler Beach Police Chief Matt Doughney at 8:28 p.m. said all areas had been cleared of danger but the edge of the pier that still needed a “better safe than sorry” examination by the bomb squad, which was on its way. “There’s a couple of backpacks but that’s not unusual with fishermen,” Doughney said. “When they were asked to evacuate they did exactly as they were instructed, leave everything and go.” The St. Johns County Sheriff’s bomb squad arrived shortly afterward.

As far as evacuations went, “only a few” of the businesses on the west side of A1A had to be evacuated “because most of them are closed,” Doughney said. No homes were evacuated.

In Flagler Beach, all fire and safety equipment was being staged at Publix on the west side of the bridge, off SR100.




The individual making the threat is reportedly unstable, with mental health issues, and was making very wild claims, but was also claiming to have eyes on the scene, heightening concerns, particularly about objects on the pier. It was unclear whether those objects were fishermen’s belongings, like duffel bags regulars bring out there normally. The St. Johns County Sheriff’s bomb squad was placed on standby or requested. It is the go-to squad whenever Flagler has a bomb scare. It has had a few in the past dozen years, but none resulted in the discovery of actual bombs except in some instances when live grenades were discovered, though without malicious intent.

The situation in Flagler Beach is slightly more uncertain given the absence of actual objects a squad could focus on, other than the bags on the pier. It appeared that authorities had deployed at least one drone that was flying over and alongside the pier, enabling closer analysis of the objects. The area beneath the pier–reportedly where the alleged suspect said he’d placed the “bombs”–was cleared of any suspicious objects.

“A pretty broad perimeter of police everywhere, they must’ve called in a bunch of off-duty city police, there must be at least a half a dozen of them,” an eyewitness at the scene said. “But I don’t see a whole lot of activity other than them holding people back.”

The patrol cars were concentrated outside the Funky pelican at first but were then spread out to broaden the perimeter.

As the minutes passed authorities evacuated the blocks immediately adjacent to the pier and the beach in the area of the pier.

There are not many places in the periphery of the pier from where the individual–the suspect–could have eyes on the pier and the beach around it, other than Finn’s, the restaurant-bar, and a few buildings along A1A.




The overwhelming majority of bomb scares prove to be just that–scares originating from individuals fabricating fearmongering claims. In this instance, the man making the threats has been making statements that suggest he is not entirely in his right mind. On the other hand, neither are individuals who maliciously, inexplicably intend to cause harm, though they usually do not broadcast the intention.

An similar bomb scare was called in at the north campus of Florida State College in Jacksonville in mid-February, where the suspect calling in the threat claimed he’d planted bombs throughout campus. The threat was disclosed to News 4, the television station in Jacksonville. A search of the campus turned up nothing suspicious. The station was able to provide an originating phone number to authorities, but the number was dialed from an untraceable virtual phone number.

Authorities nevertheless were able to tie the call to an individual and a podcast on “Twitch,” since taken down for “a violation of Twitch’s Community Guidelines.” A video of the podcast, called “The OddKast,” was still somehow accessible on YouTube. It features two individuals hosting seemingly taking calls and featuring recurring racist, bigoted and anti-Semitic comments that normally run afoul of YouTube’s guidelines. In YouTube’s comment section, someone had written seven months ago: “Turner was arrested in 2015 for a bomb threat. He wanted to bomb a LGBT conference in Jacksonville as of today nobody has any idea where he is.”

Ironically, the pier is slated for demolition this year or early next year as the city prepares to rebuild a longer, concrete pier in its place. But demolition will take place piecemeal, without explosives. (See: “Flagler Beach Commission Votes to Build 800-ft., $12.5 Million Concrete Pier Replacement.”)