An incident last week involving a threat to the Vero Beach offices of nonprofit Thrive could complicate the agency’s plans to open a round-the-clock addiction intake center and transient addict housing facility in a residential neighborhood in Vero Beach.
On Thursday, May 7, just before 6 p.m., an employee of Thrive (formerly known as the Substance Awareness Center) reported receiving a phone call from a local 772 number threatening to bring an AK-style rifle to the addiction counseling headquarters on 5th Avenue between Indian River Boulevard and Royal Palm Boulevard, north of Miracle Mile, and shoot up the place. There is no recording of the call.
Police quickly identified a suspect based on the phone number, but the phone’s owner, 27-year-old Michael Sean O’Brien, had no obvious connection with Thrive. He wasn’t a client, employee, former employee or related to an employee in Thrive’s database.
After not finding the suspect at home, police contacted a woman on record as living at the same address. The woman, who turned out to be the suspect’s fiancée, informed detectives she worked near the Thrive office…