Background: The Social Security Administration Office on Robert C. Daniel Parkway in Augusta, Georgia that received a bomb scare by Keyon Tishaye Dickens, inset. Booking photo Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.
When Keyon Tishaye Dickens got a phone call from the Social Security Administration in Georgia last year telling him funds the agency had overpaid him would be clawed back, Dickens responded by vowing to bomb or shoot up the federal office and its workers, according to a newly-filed federal plea agreement.
“I’m going to shoot the office up and I’m going to blow it up. I haven’t decided yet what I’m going to do,” Dickens railed in October 2023 phone call with a customer service representative at the Social Security office on Robert C. Daniel Parkway in Augusta.
“Just let them know I’m on my way down there and to look out for me,” Dickens said before showing up to the office with a backpack in tow.
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The notice of overpayment letter by the Social Security Administration was sent to Dickens in July and by September, he was told the amount being withheld from his checks would soon increase. Things boiled over entirely in October, the guilty plea explained.
“Dickens said he was sick of SSA doing things to his check, so he was going to blow up the SSA building,” the plea agreement states.
He then vowed to bomb the office or start shooting on arrival. He just couldn’t decide which course to take, he told the agent.
Prosecutors said when Dickens finally showed up at the office, he didn’t wait long before passing a note to a security guard that said: “I have a bomb.”
He was arrested outside of the facility and a search of Dickens’ backpack turned up the handwritten “bomb hoax note,” his plea agreement states.
In a statement Monday, the Justice Department said that the incident prompted the Augusta Social Security office to be closed and the entire building evacuated until a bomb squad was able to clear the area.
No bomb was ever found. With his guilty plea, Dickens faces up to 10 years in federal prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. He is not eligible for parole.
A review of the federal docket in Georgia shows that Dickens was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation this February. He was formally deemed competent to stand trial in March and within three weeks, the first plea agreement was discussed. It wasn’t accepted by the court until May 17.
An attorney for Dickens did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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The post ‘Just let them know I’m on the way down there’: Man who threatened to bomb, shoot up Social Security office pleads guilty first appeared on Law & Crime .
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