Posted on 10/10/2005 2:13:03 PM PDT by .cnI redruM
An explosive device was detonated by the Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad outside of 527 Midvale Ave. on Friday afternoon.
A calm and quiet Westwood was briefly disrupted Friday afternoon when the Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad inspected and detonated an explosive device found within the Midvale Plaza apartment complex on the 500 block of Midvale Avenue.
After responding to a call made at 11:13 a.m., the bomb squad arrived at 527 Midvale Ave. to find "an improvised explosive device" in the building's open-air courtyard, said Grace Brady, a spokeswoman for the LAPD.
No injuries were reported, but authorities have been slow to release details about the incident and the device.
Residents said they first heard a small explosion sometime between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. Friday, but most said they went back to sleep. It was not until a resident found an explosive device later that morning that the police were called.
Police cars, FBI vehicles, ambulances, fire trucks and parking-enforcement vehicles blocked access to the street, and police officers restricted nearby pedestrian traffic while the bomb squad inspected the device. About 15 people waited at the corner of Midvale Avenue and Ophir Drive until they were allowed to return to their apartments near where the explosive was found.
Neither the apartment building nor nearby buildings were evacuated, but Paul Robi, a detective with the FBI bomb squad, said the squad executed "a moderate evacuation," which amounted to telling residents to stay off their balconies and in their apartments. Curious onlookers who stepped onto their balconies said they were immediately told to go back into their apartments.
Shortly after 1 p.m., the bomb squad remotely detonated the device. A low boom was audible for about a one-block radius, and several people who live across the street said they felt their apartments shake.
Beau Gillman, a second-year business economics student who lives across the street, said he heard shouts of "fire in the hole" before he heard and felt the explosion.
About five minutes later, police reopened the street to vehicles and pedestrians.
Most of the residents interviewed said they were aware of the situation, but they did not feel afraid or threatened. Most were surprised that someone would put an explosive in a Westwood apartment building.
Several residents said their apartments were briefly searched after the incident, but they said the searches did not appear to specifically target any residents. They also said it appeared to be apartment management who conducted the searches, though Midvale Plaza managers refused to comment.
Nancy Greenstein, director of the UCPD community services division, said UCPD officers were not on the scene Friday, but they routinely investigate suspicious packages. None of the recent calls to the department have revealed actual explosive devices, she said.
It's past time to round em up and ship em out.
Very close to UCLA which has a significant Arab presence.
"authorities have been slow to release details about the incident and the device." ...........sound familiar?
There's just something about those #'s...5-2-7...
*Cough*Liberal groups*Cough*
Gangsters or jihadists? Or both?
Yes, you'll see about three or four blocks where all the signs are in Arabic rather than English.
LOL... you could only hear it a block away... but it shook apartments across the street..... right.....
The jihading arabs are visitors to this sandbox and if they can't get along with us then they need to be send back to the ME where they can kill each other off for the next 1000 years.
It's common for police departments to not release details about such things so that they can verify witnesses, suspects, etc. as being truthful or not based on their knowledge of details that were not released to the public.
That's what I've learned by watching every episode of Law and Order 3 times, anyway.
"an improvised explosive device" I sure love to know exactly what that means in this case.
sounds reasonable ......this story is recent(happened friday) ............I keep thinking of the bomb at the football game in OK and MSM silence regarding same
Ping (Addressee list is from memory... (o:)
Device found in LA
OK so we have devices found in:
Norman, OK (OU "Suicide" bomber)
East Chicago, IN (Car bomb on I-94)
Georgia Tech
Threat in NYC (with plot apparently foiled)
May be others I'm forgetting... Is this the "Happy Ramadan" stuff Bush warned us about?
It looks like my new tagline was timely.
i must have missed it -- what happened at georgia tech???
Explosion at Georgia Tech today
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