(WJW) – The FOX 8 I-Team has found the answer to the question everyone’s asking about a mother and son arrested with a stash of guns and ammo at the Cuyahoga County Justice Center.

Why would anyone bring that firepower to the court complex? The I-Team went inside the investigation of a bust we first revealed on Wednesday.

Investigators say guards at a checkpoint spotted two guns and a total of 99 rounds of ammunition in a bag sent through a security checkpoint.

We asked Cuyahoga County Sheriff Harold Pretel what the suspects were trying to do with the weapons. The sheriff answered, “that’s the question we asked.”

The sheriff says the suspects admitted they’d been carrying the guns for protection. He told us Andrea Williams had been worried someone may have been stalking her and she had gone to the justice center to see about getting a protection order.

“So, they had no issue with anyone or anything going on in the courthouse. It was something personal going on outside of here that caused them to fear for their safety,” the sheriff said. “The courthouse is not the place to bring any weapon. It’s illegal.”

Investigators say Lanell Williams had the guns and the ammunition in a bag, even putting that through a security x-ray machine. Then, deputies say Andrea Williams started trying to distract the guards.

That led to the arrest of mother and son. Now, Cuyahoga County prosecutors have filed charges against Andrea Williams and Lanell Williams. Both now charged for carrying a concealed weapon and illegal conveyance of a deadly weapon in a courthouse.

“Our supervisors contacted the Joint Terrorism Task Force to ensure, being a courthouse, that there was no coordinated attack,” the sheriff said.

We checked court records. We found no prior cases locally for the man caught with the weapons. Investigators told us he had no prior record anywhere.

For the woman, we found a 20-year-old case in Cuyahoga County, and the county says she also has a criminal record in Pittsburgh.

The justice center complex includes the city and county courts, the jail, Cleveland police headquarters and the headquarters for the sheriff’s department.

The county administrative judge tells us this case has sparked a review of justice center security even though the weapons were found at the checkpoint.

“It reminds us that we always have to be on guard,” Judge Brendan Sheehan said. “Anytime a security issue comes up, we definitely have to review our policies and training.”

The county says, in the last year, deputies at the justice center have seized seven guns.

Some court workers have complained the county did not alert them about the latest incident until hours later. They believe this raises security issues.

Even visitors to the justice center we met also spoke out.

“If they were able to get in here like that, no telling what could’ve happened,” one man said.

“I just think it’s crazy that they would even think to try to do it,” one woman added.

The sheriff says the suspects, in this case, claimed they had no car and no place to leave their guns when they went to the justice center.

The case will now go before a grand jury.