Mandan Police located and released into Bismarck Police's custody Sunday evening the man suspected of telling an acquaintance at Kirkwood Mall he was going to cause problems at the Bismarck Civic Center and "blow them up," said Bismarck Police Sgt. Steve Cysewski.

The suspect, Brian James Brandner, 20, of Mandan, was arrested on suspicion of terrorizing, a Class C felony, and taken to the Burleigh County jail.

"He didn't make any admissions,"Cysewski said. He said Brandner was arrested based on witness statements from people who know Brandner and interviews of other witnesses, he said.

The threat made at the mall Sunday resulted in the evacuation of Century High School graduating seniors and the rest of the crowd at the beginning of the 5 p.m. Friday graduation ceremony.

The acquaintance of the suspect, who just knew the suspect's first name, called police at 5 p.m. Sunday to report the comments.

Century High School's graduation ceremony had just begun at 5 p.m. Sunday when Paul Johnson, Bismarck's school superintendent, was called off the stage and told by a school resource officer that there had been a bomb threat, Johnson said Sunday.

He said the resource officer had received a cell phone call from the Bismarck Police Department informing him that someone at Kirkwood Mall had told another person there that he had planted a bomb in the Civic Center.

More recent information from police said the suspect's wording didn't include "bomb," just that he was "going to cause problems … and he was going (to) blow them up,"according to the news release.

Johnson said the person the suspect told then called police, giving them a good description of the person.

Johnson said because of the amount of information police had about the suspect, school officials decided to go ahead with the National Anthem - giving police about five minutes to try to resolve the situation and find the suspect.

Time passed with no resolution and the decision was made to inform the crowd of the bomb threat and instruct them to return at 6:30 p.m. after the police department's bomb squad had time to sweep the building.

Johnson said to his knowledge this has never happened in this school district before.

At 6 p.m., the Civic Center was reopened and people were allowed to return for the ceremony, said Bismarck Police Lt. Doug Ketterling.

He said the building was opened early after a sweep had been conducted. At that point, the suspect was still being sought, Ketterling said.

He said he assumes the early opening was because the "Civic Center, the manager and our people over there" had determined the situation was safe.

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at virginia.grantier@;bismarcktribune.com.)