SAN ANTONIO – Police arrested 26-year-old Jacob Zimmerle for making terroristic threats against San Antonio International Airport.
Officers say Zimmerle called in a bomb threat to the airport Wednesday, August 22 – an incident that’s drawing comparison to a similar threat made August 1 that shut down the airport.
An SAPD spokesman says Zimmerle is just a copycat, but a police source tells News 4 Zimmerle is being investigated in connection with that case.
News 4’s camera was the only one following Jacob Zimmerle as police escorted him in handcuffs Thursday night.
"What bomb threat?" were the only words Zimmerle spoke.
The 26-year-old wouldn’t answer questions about it, but police say he used a friend’s phone to make a prank call to 911.
"It was a bomb threat that the caller made stating there was a bomb on the airplane,” Sandy Gutierrez with SAPD says.
Police say the airport was swept and given the all-clear.
An arrest report shows detectives traced the call to a cell phone number and brought the owner of that phone in for questioning.
That person, who police are not identifying, said Zimmerle had the cell phone at 10:09 a.m. Wednesday – the same time the bomb threat was made.
The witness listened to a recording of the 911 call and confirmed it was Zimmerle’s voice.
The witness said Zimmerle has a history of making prank calls to 911 and was charged with the offense by another police agency.
The arrest report states Zimmerle “has a mental condition and was found after the 911 call yelling and screaming on a VIA bus about seeing dead bodies from the World Trade Center.”
Police arrested him at a west side duplex. Neighbors say he lived in a house on the back side of the property but didn’t know anything else about him.
Zimmerle has an extensive police record in Bexar Count of thirteen offenses dating back to 2003, ranging from trespassing and graffiti to prostitution.
