Bomb threat charge dropped for Boston Marathon hoax suspect

Prosecutors have dropped a bomb threat charge against a man who was arrested in April for walking through the finish area of the Boston Marathon carrying a black backpack on the anniversary of the 2013 attack, officials said on Tuesday.

Kevin Edson, 25, had faced a maximum of 20 years in prison on the charge before it was terminated, though he still faces a possible five-year sentence for carrying a hoax device, said Jake Wark, spokesman for the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office.

In April, Edson carried a backpack containing what he described to police as a rice cooker at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon, prompting the evacuation of a crowded downtown street that hours earlier had been the site of a memorial for the victims of the bombing.