A 37-year-old Alabama man was arrested in connection with a device left in a pickup truck in Marietta in the area near the East Gate shopping plaza on Lower Roswell Road.

[The Cobb County Courier has a policy of withholding or redacting the name of suspects unless and until the person is convicted in a court of law or enters a plea of guilty. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty, and the internet has no effective way of removing reports of arrest if the person is exonerated. We do make exceptions in high-profile cases or charges against public officials where exoneration is likely to be as widely publicized as the initial arrest]

Police were dispatched as the result of a 911 call on 8:13 Saturday morning, February 25, and found the truck and a device that contained explosives.

After interviewing the suspect, who was also the owner of the truck, investigators determined that he was also the person who phoned in the tip.

With the help of Cobb and Marietta police and fire agencies. the businesses in the plaza were evacuated.

According to the public information release from Officer Chuck McPhilamy of the Marietta Police Department, investigators from the Cobb County Police Department dismantled the device and determined that it contained “some explosive elements, but lacked other components necessary for it to be considered a fully assembled explosive device.”

Responding agencies and personnel included Cobb Sheriff Deputies, Cobb County Police Officers, Marietta Fire personnel, Cobb Fire personnel, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms.

The suspect, was taken into custody without incident and the device was secured by CCPD bomb technicians.

The suspect is facing charges of False Report of a Crime, Destructive Devices – Hoax Device, and False Public Alarm, and remains incarcerated at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center with a $60,000 bond. The investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information is urged to contact MPD Detective Bollinger at 770-794-5345..