Posted on 05/10/2013 7:44:15 PM PDT by Pan_Yan
(Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors charged a paramedic, one of the first to respond to a deadly explosion last month in the Texas town of West, with unlawful possession of pipe bomb components, but authorities said no evidence linked the charge to the fertilizer plant disaster.
Bryce Reed, 31, appeared at federal court in Waco, Texas, on Friday, where he faced one count of unlawfully possessing an unregistered destructive device. He did not enter a plea, said Daryl Fields, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in the Western District of Texas.
Local police said there was no known connection between Reed's charges and the April 17 explosion that killed 14 people and injured about 200 others.
Friday's developments brought no clarity as to what exactly happened the day of the blast that gutted an apartment complex, damaged a nursing home and demolished dozens of homes.
"No evidence has been uncovered to indicate any connection to the events surrounding the fire and subsequent explosion at the West fertilizer plant and the arrest," the McLennan County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
The paramedic, whose home was one of many destroyed by the blast, had recounted afterward in interviews with Reuters how he helped people evacuate the area and went on to respond as a volunteer at the disaster scene until he learned a close friend was among the dead.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Ping.
Hat tip to Pikachu_Dad for the link.
Something odd going on here. They just didn’t decide to check this guy out because it was Thursday. A similar case to the firemen setting fires in California to get overtime? A firebug or amateur bomber? Something odd.
Thank you. Visiting relatives and don’t have time to post.
Someone please check that guy’s party affiliation.
Vague story about him asking a friend to look after some possessions the day of the explosion. Friend did not look into the box until recently. Reported it to the FBI - presumably in the last few days, which is when this broke.
motive not assertained yet.
Lovers spat perhaps?
Weird. I’ve had some exes, had to give a john boat back once under some freakish conditions but never thought about blowing them or their place of employment up.
It’s too easy to walk away and move on...
It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that this bug is also responsible for other fires/arsons in the area.
In a bygone era people used to make and blow up pipe bombs for fun. Not anymore.
Now they don’t laugh and joke about it at work like thy used to. I’m sure it still goes on just more privately.
Interesting.
To say the least.
Fired 2 days after the explosion.
Hmmm, “Upon reaching the plant, Bryce Reed said, he saw Cyrus’ truck, so he kept on driving because he was confident the firefighter could handle the call. Minutes later, the plant erupted in a fire ball.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2322906/Bryce-Reed-Texas-paramedic-explosion-responder-fired-days-blast.html#ixzz2SxspHAAn
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According to ‘before its bews’ Dallas Morning News reported that this guy assumed radio control of the scene when the bomb went off.
The first radio traffic after the explosion was of a male voice saying that a bomb had exploded. So was that Mr. reeds voice?
“Details are very limited as of now but we do know that he has not officially been named a suspect in the investigation. Here are some of the things we know about Bryce Reed so far.
The Dallas Morning News Reports:
Bryce Reed, who told The Dallas Morning News that he assumed radio command of the April 17 incident after the explosion killed his superiors and colleagues, was accused Friday of giving an “assortment of bomb making components” to an unnamed person in nearby Abbott on April 26, nine days after the explosion.
Hours after his arrest, the Texas Rangers and McLennan County Sheriff’s office launched a criminal investigation into the plant explosion but did not say what role, if any, the federal charges against Reed played in their decision.”
La Times article
“By Cindy Carcamo, Christine Mai-Duc and Seema Mehta
April 18, 2013, 9:28 p.m.
WEST, Texas — Bryce Reed stuffed the trunk of his vehicle with Gatorade at a Best Western hotel and braced himself for what would come next.
Before heading to the scene of a devastating explosion that killed at least 11 people and wounded more than 160 others, the incident commander with West Emergency Medical Services would have to tell his best friend’s family that he had died after both of them responded to a fertilizer plant fire that preceded the blast.
Reed, 31, said he was ordered just south of the fire to take the role of incident commander while his friend, a fellow first responder whose name has not been released, stayed at the scene of the blaze when the explosion occurred.
“He was my best friend. He got me help through the crisis in my life. He’s my brother,” Reed said.
He looked up, trying to hide his emotions. “I have to go to his family right now,” he said.”
>> no evidence linked the charge to the fertilizer plant disaster.
Guilty or innocent...
>> unlawful possession of pipe bomb components
A full, effective set I suppose whatever that might be...
>> of unlawfully possessing an unregistered destructive device.
Define “destructive device”. Forceps?
Dallas News
“By CHRISTINA ROSALES Staff Writer crosales@dallasnews.com
Published: 05 May 2013 11:50 PM
Updated: 06 May 2013 12:05 AM
....
West paramedic Bryce Reed helped victims escape from the April 17 explosion that killed his closest friend and destroyed his home. He has attended funeral after funeral for his fellow first responders and helped neighbors salvage bits and pieces of their homes.
But now the 31-year-old is buried under the rubble of the painful memories, stress and shock.
Reed has a savior, though, and so do other men and women whose careers call them to disasters where they witness human suffering and trauma. In an effort to minimize these first responders’ mental and emotional anguish, dozens of volunteer psychologists and chaplains set up their services in Central Texas during the weeks following the explosion.
“They’re rescuing the rescuers,” said Reed, who has had a few informal sessions with a volunteer psychologist and a chaplain. “They’re really walking through hell with us to help us get to the other side.”
....
“They’re very proud of their work and what they do,” said Sara Dolan a psychology and neuroscience professor at Baylor University. She has been working to help Reed manage his grief. “But they’re struggling with guilt because their job is to control chaos, and some of them were not able to accomplish that mission.”
....
Reed said that he and his surviving “brothers,” who assisted with search and rescue efforts, debriefed with this kind of team, telling their stories of what they saw, heard, felt and smelled.
....
Reed said he told his brothers that on the evening of April 17, he had been sitting at home with his wife, a nurse, when they heard about a fire at the plant.
The two drove through the area, urging people to evacuate apartments, knowing that the burning chemicals there could make residents sick. Avoiding the toxic plume, they drove to the plant and saw ambulances had responded. He saw a truck there belonging to Cyrus Reed - his brother in every sense of the word except “by blood” and a firefighter for the Abbott Volunteer Fire Department. They were best friends and shared a name but were not related.
They drove away to continue the informal evacuation and 10 seconds later, they felt the boom.
“I knew this was going to be a mass casualty,” he said. In the chaos after, his wife disappeared, trying to triage any of the injured.
He doubled back to the plant to assist in searching for and treating any survivors, he said, and then assumed command on the radio when he realized his superiors died in the explosion.
He talked an injured first responder out of the rubble, who informed him that “my brother, Cy was dead,” he said. His wife, he later learned, was OK.
The rest is a blur.
Slowly improving
Last week, Reed drove around his small town. He saw his place of work was destroyed, his friends’ houses were leveled — all the sadness, reminders of everything he lost surrounded him.
He said he has been feeling like he’s been “screaming underwater” and was not coping well.
“But there are counselors everywhere,” Reed said.
Dolan and Coppell chaplain Steven Calvert have been his particular comforters.
“I’ve improved by leaps and bounds,” he said. “They, honest to God, want to understand what’s going on. Sara didn’t ask me how Cy’s funeral went. She attended. She wanted to walk with me underground through the hurt so that she could help me out of it.”
....
Reed said he’s not sure he’ll ever be OK and he’s not sure he’ll continue his work as a paramedic. He thinks maybe he’ll be a counselor one day.
“Who I was before April 17 has died,” he said. “I have to figure out who I am again.”
Post he made on his facebook page on May 7
Cyrus Reed was not his real “brother”.
He is pretty defensive here.
“
Bryce A. Reed
May 7 near West, TX
So, I will say it AGAIN!!! I have not received ONE CENT for ANYTHING that I did to help with this situation. I have not been paid by the media, by press, I made nothing for delivering my brothers eulogy, and made NOTHING off of this tragedy. I was a shoulder to cry on, I found a GREAT new family, and was blessed to get to tell them about their son. THIS IS NOT ABOUT ME!!! IT IS ABOUT 12 HEROS THAT DIED TO SAVE LIVES!!!!! I am blessed to be alive. Period. I lost a lot in this and there have been INCREDIBLY kind people who are taking donations so I can get a HOME AND LIFE back, however, never would I PROFIT from anyones death. I loved and still love Cyrus A. Reed, and he loved me. I did and will do what I thought was right. Was I emotionally devistated? Hell yes I was. Have your brother die, your town explode, your crew be emotionally wrecked, and in the midst of it have your wife leave you because you are lost in your own emotions: ALL IN THE SAME WEEK, and see how you fare. People I am doing my BEST to hold myself together, but please for the love of God quit picking me apart. I have to bury yet ANOTHER friend tomorrow. God Bless”
Interesting tidbits on the case.
Daily Mail.
“On his LinkedIn profile, Reed said he spent time at the U.S. Biological and Chemical Weapon Depot in Ft McClellan, Alabama”
“Reed, who acted as the town’s spokesman in the aftermath of the blast, had a court appearance in Waco today and will remain in custody until a further hearing on Wednesday.”
“Bryce said that he and his wife Brittany Reed were listening to music at their home when they heard the town’s siren and jumped into their truck to warn people nearby.
‘Get your kids and go!’ the couple said they yelled at residents of an apartment complex near the plant.
They said they were about 50 to 75 yards from the plant when the blast rocked their car.”
“On Monday he posted that he is ‘appalled at how people are tearing me apart.’ He mentions that his wife, Brittany, left him because he was ‘lost in his own emotions’. “
Considerable difference between that story and this one.
“Reed grew up in suburban Dallas and said he had lived in West for 12 years. At the Czech Inn the weekend after the explosion, Reed’s wife, Brittany, pulled out her phone and played a video she said was taken just days before the blast of the couple’s young daughter playing with Cyrus Reed, whom her husband credited for saving his life.
Upon reaching the plant, Bryce Reed said, he saw Cyrus’ truck, so he kept on driving because he was confident the firefighter could handle the call. Minutes later, the plant erupted in flames.
When Cyrus’ body arrived at a funeral home three days later, Bryce Reed said he stayed there all night.
“I got to hug him for the last time. He got there at 9 o’clock last night and I was there until 4 in the morning, holding onto my brother,” Reed said at the time. “And telling him I’m sorry for everything that I did.”
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/10/3391798/media-savvy-paramedic-facing-explosives.html#storylink=cpy
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