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The 49-year-old from Sacramento was wearing a scarf covering his
face and latex gloves, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant said in a news
release. He also had five cell phones: one with a 15-minute
timer set to begin, a second with a message on the screen from
another phone number saying, “we will be awaiting your call.”
Evidence photos released by prosecutors show a cardboard tube
about the size of a toilet paper roll fitted with a green fuse.
Bomb technicians tested the device. The powder and fuse “were
determined to be viable and energetic,” Grant said.
If the device had detonated next to a window on a pressurized
aircraft flying above 10,000 feet (3 kilometers), Grant said,
“it had the potential to damage the aircraft and cause a
possible loss of cabin pressure.”
Before the device was removed from the airport, officers put a
bomb blast suppression blanket over it and taped off the
immediate area, according to the federal complaint against the
man.
He was arrested Saturday and appeared in federal court in
Sacramento on Wednesday. He is charged with unlawful possession
of explosive material in an airport. The complaint also alleges
he made “rambling” calls to the FBI in the months beforehand to
report he was being threatened and intimidated.
His public defender, Meghan McLoughlin, said in an email to The
Associated Press on Thursday that “there is often more to these
cases than the government’s allegations, and that the criminal
process will reveal” her client’s story as well.
It wasn't immediately known how extensively the man was searched
at the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint. Last
year, air travelers in the U.S. were no longer required to take
off their shoes during security screenings. Screenings without
shoes became a requirement in 2006, several years after “shoe
bomber” Richard Reid’s failed 2001 attempt to take down a flight
from Paris to Miami.
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