NEWPORT — Chief Travis Bingham reports that a Newport man who was charged with making a bomb threat toward North Country Union High School was ordered held without bail at arraignment on Friday.
CYPHER AIKEN, AGE 25, OF NEWPORT, was arrested on Thursday and charged with:
- Domestic Terrorism; Threatening a Civilian Population with Mass Destruction and Mass Killings
AIKEN was arraigned Friday in Orleans District Court, where a judge ordered him to undergo an inpatient competency evaluation. Once the evaluation is complete, AIKEN will be held without bail until a weight-of-the-evidence hearing is held. That hearing has not yet been scheduled.
On Thursday, Aug. 28, at approximately 12:23 p.m., Newport Police were notified that an individual identified as AIKEN made a threat via text message saying that he planted bombs inside North County Union High School.
Police immediately notified school officials, and a decision was made based on the information received to evacuate the high school. Other schools in Newport were also placed on lockdown out of an abundance of caution. The high school was searched by members of the Newport Police Department and maintenance staff. The other schools remained in lockdown until AIKEN was taken into custody. Police officers were at those locations providing security while police searched for AIKEN.
Police continued to search for AIKEN by checking his residence and pinging his cellphone, eventually locating him and taking him into custody at Shaw’s supermarket on Route 5 in Derby. Due to his threats of having bombs, the Vermont State Police Bomb Team was called in to Derby to search the vehicle AIKEN was driving for any potentially dangerous devices.
It was eventually determined that AIKEN did not have any explosives.
These are allegations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty.
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