{"id":65546,"date":"2026-03-25T22:01:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/?p=65546"},"modified":"2026-03-25T22:01:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:01:28","slug":"man-charged-after-threat-to-macdill-afb-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/man-charged-after-threat-to-macdill-afb-in-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"Man charged after threat to MacDill AFB in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A Florida man has been charged after authorities said he threatened MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, where the FBI is also investigating a suspicious package containing what it described as possible energetic materials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jonathan James Elder, 35, of Palm Harbor, was arrested Monday and is accused of making a threat by means of fire or an explosive, according to a federal criminal complaint cited by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/news\/crime\/2026\/03\/25\/macdill-arrest-threat-explosive-bomb\/\">Tampa Bay Times<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The newspaper reported that the charge stems from a March 18 phone call to MacDill, two days after a suspicious package was found outside the base\u2019s visitor center near the Dale Mabry Gate. According to the complaint, Elder called a main number at the base and was routed to an employee in the 6th Medical Group shortly after 9 a.m. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He allegedly asked, \u201cHow did you like the surprise at the MacDill Visitors Center?\u201d and then yelled, \u201ctick tick boom, it\u2019s gonna be between your eyes\u201d before hanging up, the Times reported. The employee reported the call, and the base later issued a shelter-in-place order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Tampa Bay Times reported that authorities traced the March 18 call to Elder\u2019s phone and used cell-site data to place him in relevant locations in the days before the threat. The newspaper said Elder later admitted making the call and asked investigators whether they had \u201cenjoyed the pipe bomb\u201d at the front gate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the complaint cited by the Times, Elder has a history of similar threats and was taken to a mental health facility under Florida\u2019s Baker Act after he was interviewed. The complaint also said he had previously made threats to shoot people and build pipe bombs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/suspicious-package-at-macdill-afb-contained-possible-energetic-materials\/?swcfpc=1\">FBI said last week<\/a> that field screening of the package found outside MacDill on March 16 identified \u201cpossible energetic materials,\u201d but officials have not released additional information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Tampa Bay Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/news\/tampa\/2026\/03\/25\/macdill-bomb-threat-anonymous-video-fbi\/\">also reported<\/a> Monday that the FBI had widened its investigation to include an anonymous video sent to the newspaper that claimed responsibility for planting a bomb near MacDill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the 3-minute, 14-second video, a person shown in silhouette and speaking through what appeared to be a voice filter laid out a timeline of threats against the base and claimed a bomb had been placed near MacDill on March 10 but failed to detonate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The speaker, who repeatedly used \u201cwe,\u201d said those involved had \u201ctaken actions to rectify this\u201d and claimed to be part of a political group opposed to the U.S. war in Iran and the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s deportation efforts, according to the newspaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was not clear whether the man who was arrested is also the person who sent the anonymous video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MacDill is home to U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, the military command overseeing operations in the Middle East, including current U.S. military action involving Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Florida man has been charged after authorities said he threatened MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, where the FBI is also investigating a suspicious package containing what it described as possible energetic materials. Jonathan James Elder, 35, of Palm Harbor, was arrested Monday and is accused of making a threat by means of fire [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":65268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[276,93,4324,2258,151],"class_list":["post-65546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal","tag-bomb-threat","tag-florida","tag-macdill-air-force-base","tag-tampa-florida","tag-united-states"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Man charged after threat to MacDill AFB in Florida - BNO News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/man-charged-after-threat-to-macdill-afb-in-florida\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Man charged after threat to MacDill AFB in Florida - BNO News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Florida man has been charged after authorities said he threatened MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, where the FBI is also investigating a suspicious package containing what it described as possible energetic materials. Jonathan James Elder, 35, of Palm Harbor, was arrested Monday and is accused of making a threat by means of fire [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/man-charged-after-threat-to-macdill-afb-in-florida\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BNO News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bnonews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-26T02:01:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-26T02:01:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260318MacDillAirForceBaseThreat.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlos Robles\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bnonews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bnonews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carlos Robles\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/man-charged-after-threat-to-macdill-afb-in-florida\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/man-charged-after-threat-to-macdill-afb-in-florida\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carlos Robles\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0a2ca734b9c5688c0e2d40fe6f33add1\"},\"headline\":\"Man charged after threat to MacDill AFB in Florida\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-26T02:01:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-26T02:01:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/man-charged-after-threat-to-macdill-afb-in-florida\/\"},\"wordCount\":480,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/man-charged-after-threat-to-macdill-afb-in-florida\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260318MacDillAirForceBaseThreat.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"bomb threat\",\"Florida\",\"MacDill Air Force Base\",\"Tampa (Florida)\",\"United States\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Legal\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/man-charged-after-threat-to-macdill-afb-in-florida\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/man-charged-after-threat-to-macdill-afb-in-florida\/\",\"name\":\"Man charged after threat to MacDill AFB in Florida - 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