Brian K. Williams, a former deputy mayor of Los Angeles, will plead guilty to a federal charge after falsely reporting a bomb threat at city hall last year, federal prosecutors announced Thursday, as per The AP.
Williams, 31, who served as deputy mayor for public safety under Mayor Karen Bass in October 2024, faces one felony count of making an explosives threat. The charge carries a potential maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
According to court documents, Williams sent a text message on October 3, 2024, to Mayor Bass and other senior city officials, claiming he had just received a call from someone threatening to bomb city hall.
“The male caller stated that ‘he was tired of the city support of Israel, and he has decided to place a bomb in City Hall. It might be in the rotunda,’” Williams wrote in the message, prosecutors said.
Williams said he had alerted the Los Angeles Police Department, which promptly dispatched officers to sweep city hall. No suspicious devices or packages were found during the search.
However, investigators soon uncovered that the call Williams referenced had not come from an external source. Prosecutors allege that Williams used a blocked number from his city-issued phone to mask a call he had placed himself using the Google Voice app on his personal device.
In December 2024, the FBI searched Williams’ residence as part of the investigation. He was subsequently placed on administrative leave.
