SALEM — A 67-year-old man whose home was raided by a task force that specializes in child pornography was charged Wednesday with possession of child abuse sex images.

Troy Thompson, of 4 Mascoma Road, turned himself in at the Salem police station about 1 p.m. after a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Police say that Thompson was “sharing child sex abuse images and videos” and became the target of an investigation late last year.

His home was raided by the state’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force on Jan. 5.

At the time of the raid, Thompson was an information technology employee with the Eagle-Tribune newspaper.

Thompson was involuntarily committed overnight at Parkland Medical Center’s Center for Life Management on the night that police raided his home. He made several threats about harming himself or having police officers harm him, according to police.

He was released from the hospital sometime later and remained free.

Police seized a large variety of computer hardware, hard drives and other media from the home, according to Salem police.

A handgun was also taken from the home for Thompson’s safety, police said.

Thompson was not home when investigators arrived with a search warrant, police said. His wife let police officers into the house to begin looking for and removing items, police said.

Thompson arrived at the house between 7 to 7:30 p.m. and was questioned by investigators.

Deputy Police Chief Shawn Patten said in an earlier interview that more warrants were being drawn up following the raid to review the material that had been seized.

Thompson, for now, is facing a single count of possession of child abuse sexual images. Police said on Wednesday that more charges may be forthcoming.

Thompson was released on $10,000 bail after he was booked.

It’s unknown how Thompson came to the attention of police. Search warrants for his home remain under court seal.

Investigators with ICAC have a variety of software and other methods to trace child pornography on file-sharing networks — the same places where people often download pirated music or movies.

Thompson was fired from his job after his supervisors learned of the raid, the Eagle-Tribune reported.

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James A. Kimble may be reached at JKimble@newstote.com.