TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Devices Detonated By Bomb Squads Were Not Explosive

ADVERTISEMENT

By Jen Leigh

News Channel 8

Published: March 10, 2009

Related Links

• Previous Coverage
• Aerial Video

Matthew Emmons

Daniel Worthy Terry

Nathan Slaymaker

Those devices detonated yesterday atop a Lakeland parking garage by a bomb squad robot?

Not explosive devices, investigators now say, but the remains of one previously exploded and some trash.

Yesterday, investigators thought they detonated one explosive device and neutralized a second. Lakeland police summoned a bomb squad from Tampa and the state fire marshal's office to the garage at Main Street and Massachusetts Avenue.

Lakeland Fire Department investigator John McGrath says that an investigation has determined there was only one device on top of the garage and that device was exploded over the weekend. What was thought to be a second device turned out to be merely debris. The items were detonated for safety reasons, McGrath says.

McGrath says that there was a soda bottle with some type of liquid and fireworks found at the scene.

He would not say whether those were components of a device.

Matthew Emmons, 24, Daniel Terry, 23 and Nathan Slaymaker, 19, turned themselves in to authorities last night and have first appearances this afternoon in Polk County Circuit Court in Bartow via video from Polk County Jail. They each face one count of being charged with making, possessing, throwing, projecting, placing, discharging any destructive device or attempt to do so, a second-degree felony.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT