The FBI is investigating a reported incendiary device thrown at an ICE building in downtown Atlanta at approximately 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 20. The incident was reported at 180 Ted Turner.
The building houses a field office for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as the Atlanta Immigration Court. The investigation is federal. Atlanta police first responded to a report of a possible object and then referred the case to the bureau.
Authorities have not provided a detailed account of how the incident unfolded. The public information describes a reported device, the response at the site and evidence collection now underway.
Police referred the investigation to federal authorities
Atlanta police responded after receiving a report of a possible object at the downtown location. The department then referred the investigation to the FBI, which took the lead.
Local law enforcement arrived shortly after the incident was reported, according to the available account of the response. Police directed questions about the case to federal authorities. The handoff put federal investigators in charge of the inquiry.
The site serves two immigration-related functions. It is an ICE field office and also houses the Atlanta Immigration Court. A crime scene perimeter was established along the field office’s exterior gates to support evidence collection.
Video posted online showed crime scene tape and law enforcement outside the building. That was the visible scene described in reports; authorities have not publicly detailed what investigators found or collected. The bureau’s evidence team was working at the location.
The FBI is gathering evidence while describing no public threat
FBI personnel and evidence response technicians were on site collecting evidence, the bureau said. Its statement also reported no injuries or significant damage.
“FBI personnel and evidence response technicians are on site collecting evidence”
The FBI’s Atlanta public affairs department added that there was no known threat to public safety at the time of its statement. The agency’s update also said the investigation was ongoing and that no further details were currently available.
Those statements gave the public safety information authorities had released while investigators worked at the scene. The FBI did not provide a fuller description of the evidence collection in its public comments. The investigation remained active.
The device description remains unconfirmed
Journalists at the scene described the object as a Molotov cocktail. Officials had not confirmed that description, and the specific nature of the object remained part of the federal inquiry.
The reported device was described as an incendiary object in accounts of the incident, but the agency’s public statement did not identify its specific type. No official confirmation of the Molotov-cocktail description had been provided in the updates about the investigation.
The FBI reported no injuries or significant damage at the location. It also said there was no known threat to public safety at the time. Those were the public safety details released by authorities as evidence work continued.
ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment
Atlanta police directed questions to federal authorities after referring the case. ICE did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment late Tuesday.
The FBI’s Atlanta public affairs department said the investigation was ongoing and that no further details were currently available. The bureau had personnel and evidence response technicians at the scene, with the perimeter set along the field office’s exterior gates.
The building’s combined use as an enforcement office and immigration court places both operations at the address where police answered the report. Federal investigators continued their work there after the initial response by Atlanta police.
