The Brownwood Police Department issued the following press release Monday:

On Thursday, March 25, 2021, the Brownwood Police Department was contacted by representatives of Harris Broadband regarding illegal transmissions made through the television purporting to be with the Emergency Broadcast Network. 

At various times throughout the afternoon, alerts and notifications from the Emergency Broadcast System alerted Harris Broadband viewers to a threat at a nearby nuclear power plant. The alerts were followed up with instructions to evacuate the area. Representatives from Harris Broadband explained that these were not legitimate broadcasts.

The initial report was presented to investigators with the Texas A&M Engineering Cyber Response Team who were able to locate the source of the broadcasts. They provided this information to the Federal Bureau of Investigations who confronted 20-year-old Michael Andrew Smith of Ponder, Texas with the gathered information. In an interview, Smith admitted to hacking into the system and submitting the broadcasts.

The case was submitted to the Brown County grand jury in March 2024 and an arrest warrant was issued against Smith for Breach of Computer Security. On March 28, 2024, Smith turned himself into the Brown County Jail for this warrant.