Post by Scumhunter on Dec 20, 2015 10:02:08 GMT -5
(Above photo credit: New York Times)
From the New York Times:
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Two homemade bombs exploded early this month during busy Sunday services at Roman Catholic and Baptist churches here, while a third, undetonated explosive was discovered on Friday near a leaking sprinkler valve at a Presbyterian church, fueling unease in this placid city in southern New Mexico, the second largest in the state.
Still, more than two weeks after the explosions, the local and federal authorities have yet to uncover a plausible motive, a potential suspect or a clear link among the churches other than their shared Christianity.
A grainy surveillance video of a young man in shorts and work boots walking along the parking lot of Calvary Baptist Church right before the bomb there exploded has generated some tips but no solid leads.
“We’re still connecting the dots,” the police chief in Las Cruces, Jaime Montoya, said in an interview.
Investigators have cast a broad net, questioning political activists, members and neighbors of the churches, as well as witnesses to the blasts, in search of clues — any clue.
They are also on high alert. No one was injured in the explosions, according to the police, but on Sunday, federal agents guided bomb-sniffing dogs through careful perimeter surveys of the targeted churches and several others, leaving no mailbox or trash can unturned or any crevice unexamined. The local police have fielded repeated reports of suspicious packages since the explosions, staging robust responses and hasty evacuations of an apartment complex, convenience store, mall, nursing home and, on Monday, a post office downtown.
On Tuesday, bomb threats were called in to the Las Cruces District Courthouse and the city’s adult probation office, rattling already frayed nerves. In the end, the threats and the packages were all found to be harmless.
Residents here are bewildered. Las Cruces takes pride in its ethnic heritage and cultural integration, with a mix of Hispanics and Anglos that reflects its colorful history — the area was controlled by Spain and Mexico before becoming part of the United States — and its proximity to the Mexican border, an hour’s drive south. It also has a sizable population of international students at New Mexico State University’s main campus, with many of them enrolled in its popular engineering program.
“We’re not split by railroad tracks, with one group on one side and another group on the other side,” Chief Montoya said.
The city is, however, a nascent battleground in the fight over abortion rights; Las Cruces has a single abortion clinic. It is about an hour from the city of El Paso, in Texas, which has one of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the country. And investigators have interviewed political activists here, seemingly focused on the possibility that the bombs were planted by abortion zealots of one kind or another.
Last week, F.B.I. agents asked one activist, Lucas Herndon, who works for the advocacy group ProgressNOW New Mexico, a defender of abortion rights, for a copy of a video he had recorded at a recent anti-abortion rally.
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“The agents were interested in extremists from both sides,” Mr. Herndon said in an interview. “But they didn’t seem to have a very clear idea of who did it or why.”
On Sunday during an 8 a.m. Mass at Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church, where the first bomb went off, Robert M. White Sr., an assistant special agent in charge with the F.B.I. in Albuquerque, urged parishioners to “look back one day, look back one week, for anything out of the ordinary” preceding the explosion.
He signaled, however, that investigators still had no idea how many people they were looking for.
“It’s our intent to fully identify the individual or individuals, if there is more than one, and bring him to justice,” Mr. White said.
Afterward, Craig Bullock, who helps out at the church and runs the religious education program at the elementary school next door, said that agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had asked him to search his memory for any recollections of unusual visitors to the church over the past year.
“What’s unusual?” Mr. Bullock said. “That’s not really a definable or quantifiable thing.”
He was operating the sound system from a booth at the back of the sanctuary when the explosion took place Aug. 2. He said he heard a loud bang, followed by the sound of glass crashing to the ground. The monsignor, John Anderson, was at the altar. The pews were half-full, as is customary during 8 a.m. Mass, the first of three morning services offered at Holy Cross on Sundays.
“I was saying the words, ‘For this is my body,’ when I heard, ‘Pow!’” Monsignor Anderson recalled. He looked outside and saw papers flying through the air; the bomb had been placed in a garbage can near the church’s front door and shattered a thick glass pane.
He finished the consecration. Mr. Bullock called 911 from his cellphone.
Twenty minutes later, a second bomb exploded. This one was by a side entrance at Calvary Baptist Church, three miles from Holy Cross.
The bomb had been wrapped in newspapers and placed in a mailbox bolted into a cinder block wall. The blast was so powerful that it sent the mailbox flying; the box barely missed a congregant arriving for an 8:30 a.m. service, said David Thatcher, a deacon at the church.
The mailbox landed 150 feet from where it had been attached. The bolts ended up across the street.
On Friday, a groundskeeper found a device in a plastic sprinkler box, by the main entrance to First Presbyterian Church here, prompting a partial lockdown at nearby Las Cruces High School. The groundskeeper told the Rev. Norm Story, the church’s pastor, that the device looked like a pipe, with batteries and a timer attached, The Las Cruces Sun-News reported.
Stephan Marshall, the chief division counsel for the F.B.I. in Albuquerque, said all three bombs were thought to have been placed by the same person or people. But, he added, “at this point, we haven’t gotten anything definitive.”
The F.B.I. is offering a $20,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest. There is another reward — $7,500 — available through area Crime Stoppers programs.
Thoughts? It should be noted the abortion theory is only one theory (they say zealots one way or the other which I find interesting), although it's admittedly the most plausible, there are a number of other reasons someone could have bombed the churches (anti religion in general, terrorism, racism, etc...) I will post a link to the FBI wanted poster which has a YouTube video of their person of interest.
Admin Note #1: According to the fbi.gov website, Anyone with any information on the person or persons responsible for the church bombings should contact the FBI's toll free tip-line at 1-800-CALL-FBI or their local field office or American embassy or consulate.
Admin Note #2: If you have any news-related updates on this case, please contact us here: amwfans.com/thread/1662/website-contact-form
www.fbi.gov/wanted/seeking-info/person-of-interest/view
www.nytimes.com/2015/08/20/us/bombs-at-3-churches-in-las-cruces-new-mexico-confound-the-authorities.html