Man arrested in BART Civic Center bomb threat investigation

A suspicious item found at Civic Center Station BART has stopped trains Friday morning, officials said. A suspicious item found at Civic Center Station BART has stopped trains Friday morning, officials said. Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 25 Caption Close Man arrested in BART Civic Center bomb threat investigation 1 / 25 Back to Gallery

A 46-year-old man was arrested Friday after making a false bomb threat at Civic Center BART that stopped trains and caused major delays across the transit system, officials said.

Don John Stevens was arrested on suspicion of making a false bomb threat and interfering with railroad operations, said Jim Allison, a BART spokesman.

A witness told a BART station agent that a man later identified as Stevens entered the station with an object and said he had planted two bombs inside the station, officials said. He reportedly told the witness everybody should get out, then quickly walked away.

Civic Center station shut down around 9:30 a.m. for about an hour because of the report, causing delays in both directions across the BART system as trains were unable to run through the station, officials said. The investigation also shut down Muni light rail service at Civic Center.

BART police officers had cleared the area on Market Street between Seventh and Eighth streets of pedestrians with assistance from San Francisco Police Department, and swept the station with explosive detection police dogs.

Service was restored at 10:26 a.m. after police combed the station and did not find any suspicious devices, said BART Lt. Randy Gregson.

San Francisco police officers later detained a suspect near the station who matched the witnesses’ descriptions. The initial witness and another person at the station both positively identified Stevens as the suspect, officials said.

“On behalf of our riders and everyone at BART, we’d like to thank the witness who showed the initiative to report this,” BART spokesman Jim Allison said in a statement. “BART has detailed safety and security information on its website that may assist potential witnesses.”

Stevens was booked into San Francisco County jail shortly after noon, where he was being held on $10,000 bail.

Sarah Ravani and Jenna Lyons are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com, jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ SarRavani, @JennaJourno