2 on Assembly turn outto be bags of clothes, books
Columbia police responded to three reports of suspicious packages over the course of about an hour Wednesday afternoon.
Two, one each on Assembly Street’s intersections with Lady and Washington streets, were reported around 1 p.m. and closed a three-block stretch of Assembly and its side streets as the packages were investigated.
No one was evacuated, said police spokeswoman Jennifer Timmons.
An hour later, a third suspicious item was spotted outside downtown by the intersection of Rosewood Avenue and Garners Ferry Road. The bags were gone by the time officers arrived, Timmons said.
Downtown, the police found that the package at Assembly and Lady streets was a backpack full of clothes, Timmons said.
Shortly thereafter, police, assisted by the State Law Enforcement Division, detonated the bag by Washington Street to “err on the side of caution,” Timmons said, because they couldn’t make out its contents. It mostly held library books.
The blast raised concerns on social media as a boom echoed through downtown.
The trio of reports were among many lodged nationwide — from Boston and Washington to Los Angeles and Atlanta — Wednesday as the U.S. remains on edge after Monday’s fatal Boston Marathon bombing and suspicious envelopes were sent to Washington lawmakers.