Employee Allegedly Makes Bomb Threat

Harvard College Library employee David S. Toomey was arrested at the Alewife T Station yesterday morning after allegedly implying that he had a bomb in his backpack, a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) official said last night.

He will be arraigned in Cambridge District Court this morning on charges of disorderly conduct and making terrorist threats.

MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said that both commuters and MBTA employees overheard Toomey making verbal threats about the contents of his backpack. Bomb technicians were brought in to examine the backpack.

They found no explosives, Pesaturo added.

Rail service was suspended between the Red Line Alewife and Davis T stations for the 30-minute duration of the search, and commuters were shuttled between the two stations by bus.

Service was resumed around noon after technicians detonated the backpack, according to Pesaturo.

Pesaturo, who said that terror threats were “very rare” in the T, urged all customers to report anything suspicious they see to the nearest MBTA authority.

“The T is concerned about all individuals who act in an erratic fashion,” said Pesaturo. “This threat turned out to be harmless and we got things under control very quickly, but hopefully, anyone else who wants to make stupid comments will think again.”

Toomey, a resident of Arlington, Mass., is a bibliographic assistant at the University who works in the library’s technical services division in Central Square, according to Beth S. Brainard, director of communications for the Harvard College Library.

Brainard declined to comment on whether or not Toomey’s arrest would affect his employment at Harvard.

University spokesman Joe Wrinn also declined to comment.

—Staff writer Nan Ni can be reached at nni@fas.harvard.edu.