Authorities locked down the Dane County Courthouse Monday after an alarming text message suggested a woman was being held at gunpoint within the building.
The Dane County Communications Center was first notified of the situation around noon.
"An alarm inside the courthouse was activated and Dane County bailiffs, whom are all sworn sheriff's deputies, responded immediately," Elise Schaffer, spokesperson for the Dane County Sheriff's Office, said in a statement. "The exterior doors of the courthouse were secured and a courthouse-wide lockdown was instituted."
It was later determined that the husband of the person who received the message had sent her a photo of him holding a gun to his own head. He was not in the courthouse, but at his home in Madison.
Madison Police were sent to the residence and arrested the suspect, Schaffer said.
