ODESSA, Texas — The Ector County Sheriff's Office was called out to the courthouse Thursday morning after a pipe bomb threat was found.
NewsWest 9 spoke with Mike Griffis, the Ector County Sheriff. He said an employee was the one who found the device.
"Around 7:45 this morning, an employee in the courthouse located what appeared to be a an explosive device or pipe bomb," said Griffis. "At that time the employee alerted courthouse security and the courthouse security contacted OPD and us."
Citizens were encouraged to avoid the area while the courthouse was shut down and the OPD Bomb Unit was called out.
Officers used a water device to destroy the object being investigated.
"The OPD bomb unit used a couple of different instruments to try an identify what was in the device," said Griffis. "They used what they call a water shot to perforate the device and see what was in it."
The device is safe now and it appeared to have bomb components, but ECSO said they do not know if it had all the components to cause an explosion.
"We really don’t know how long it had been there," said Griffis. "We are going through video footage right now to determine when and who left that device there."
The courthouse fully reopened Thursday afternoon, according to the county clerk's office.
ECSO does not know who is involved with the incident at this time. However, Sheriff Griffis says whoever is responsible "will be prosecuting federally for domestic terrorism and hopefully that individual goes to jail for a long long time."
FBI and members of the ATF are on the scene to conduct their own investigation.
We will continue to update this story as we receive more information.