WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A Winston-Salem woman convicted Thursday of faking a bomb threat at a downtown church told authorities that an Arab man delivered a suspicious package and threatened her with a knife, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.
But the story Daniella Patricia Diaz, 28, told was not true, even though it led to police blocking streets and evacuating more than 200 people from First Baptist Church on Fifth Street on Jan. 4, a Forsyth County prosecutor said.
Diaz of Brownsboro Road pleaded guilty Thursday in Forsyth Superior Court to making a false report of mass violence on educational property and perpetuating a hoax by use of a false bomb.
Judge John O. Craig of Forsyth Superior Court gave Diaz two consecutive suspended sentences of 5 months to 15 months. She will be on supervised probation for two years and has to perform 50 hours of community service within the first six months of her probation.
Diaz was a janitor at the church, which has a day care and an elementary school. Diaz told a day care worker on Jan. 4 that she had found a package in the church’s breezeway with a handwritten note referencing ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria). The note called for blacks, whites and Hispanics to die, Assistant District Attorney Brian Taylor said in court. Diaz told church staff that the package contained a bomb.
Read full story: The Winston-Salem Journal