Federal Courthouse Hit By Pipe Bomb
SAN DIEGO – A pipe bomb or series of pipe bombs exploded at the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Courthouse downtown early Sunday morning, sending shrapnel into a courtyard and to the eighth floor of a building across the street.
Two guards with the Federal Protective Service, who were inside the building, called authorities when they heard the explosion at 1:40 a.m. on Front Street near Broadway. The guards were not injured.
Firefighters, police, FBI and Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents arrived minutes later to find the front entrance and the lobby of the building damaged.
The cause is believed to have been a bomb or bombs that detonated at once and caused a single explosion, said Keith Slotter, FBI special agent in charge of San Diego.
Before the investigation began, San Diego Metro Arson Strike Team investigators and ATF bomb investigators searched the area to make sure there were no other explosives.
Early Sunday morning, about 40 agents combed the courtyard in front of the courthouse, Front Street and a courtyard on the other side, using evidence markers and spray paint to locate debris from the blast.
“The damage from the shrapnel didn’t stay concentrated just in front of the door,” Slotter said.
One piece of shrapnel lodged in a window about eight stories up the AT&T building that faces the courthouse.
Authorities believe the device or devices were left outside the building’s front door shortly before being detonated.
Slotter said there are cameras outside the building that may provide information. There are no cameras that directly face the doorway, he said.
Authorities were still deciding whether or not the courthouse will be open to the public Monday. They expected to make a decision late Sunday.
Investigators said Front Street, between Broadway and F Street, would be closed until at least noon Sunday while they collect evidence. That evidence will be sent to an FBI laboratory in Virginia, where bomb experts will analyze it, Slotter said. At the time of the explosion, there were not many people walking by the building, which is at least a block from nightclubs in the Gaslamp Quarter. Slotter said there were vehicles passing by when the explosion occurred, but no reports of injuries.
Anyone who saw any activity near the building at that hour is asked to call FBI at (858) 565-1255.
(UNION-TRIBUNE)
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Where is Bill Ayres(Professor of Communism) today?
May 4th, 2008 at 1:11 pmLooks like a Weather Underground op or an SLA op. Its only a matter of time before these domestic terrorists kill someone. When it happens, what’s the Fed going to do? Release the criminals into the education system?
We made a big mistake not executing Ayers and his bitch Dohrn.
May 4th, 2008 at 2:39 pmAyers, a great role-model for any would be enemy of the United States.
May 4th, 2008 at 4:50 pmEveryone is one the same page: Ayers. Ha ha ha. Luckily no one was killed. Hopefully they got the idiot on video. That is a high profile area of San Diego.
May 4th, 2008 at 7:11 pm