Issaquah, Redmond courthouses evacuated for suspicious white powder in mail

A courthouse in Issaquah was shut down Monday after clerks received a letter containing a white powder. Shortly after the Issaquah closure, a building in Redmond was also evacuated for the same reason.

Both locations were King County District Court buildings.

“They were letter envelopes. As of right now they appear to be connected. The envelopes appear the same,” said US Postal Inspector Jeremy Leder. “Both of them had a white powder inside them, which is what alerted the clerks inside the district court buildings.”

The court buildings were searched and cleaned after the envelopes were discovered, however, Leder notes that the suspicious powder was quickly determined not to be harmful.

“Both of them have been cleared as a non-hazardous powder,” he said. “There’s not a public health issue. We determined that right away. Even though there’s clean up going on.”

Leder would not disclose what the exact substance was inside the envelopes, but would only stress that the powder was not a threat.

Both the City of Issaquah and the City of Redmond notified the public of the evacuations via Twitter.