Powder left in apartment leads to arrest

Houston Chronicle ^ | November 6, 2001 | S. K. Bardwell

[Illbay]

Nov. 5, 2001, 7:52PM

Powder left in apartment leads to arrest

By S.K. BARDWELL
Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle

In an atmosphere of bioterrorism, a man's attempt to get even with the management of a Katy apartment complex he moved from last month have landed him in jail on federal charges in Las Vegas.

Jeremiah B. Tinker, 18, is charged with using a chemical weapon and remains jailed without bail in Las Vegas, where he now lives, while authorities here arrange for him to be extradited.

Tinker and his wife were seen moving from the Bent Tree Apartments in the 21500 block of Park Row in Katy and leaving in a rented truck on the morning of Oct. 17, authorities said.

Harris County Fire and Emergencies Service investigator Dan Given said the Tinkers had been fighting with management at the complex, but it was unknown whether the Tinkers had been evicted.

A maintenance man who entered the apartment after the couple left found white powder on the apartment floor and a note taped to an interior door that read, "Life's to (sic) short."

Shortly after entering the apartment, the maintenance man began to suffer respiratory difficulty. He left the apartment and was assisted by a second maintenance man, who also began to have trouble breathing, authorities said.

The Westlake and West Interstate 10 fire departments, as well as the Houston Fire Department's hazardous materials unit, responded to the scene. Before the powder was cleaned up, five people, including one firefighter, had to be decontaminated and taken to a hospital.

Four of the victims were treated for breathing difficulties and headaches and released later that day. The first maintenance man to enter the apartment was hospitalized overnight.

The powder on the apartment floor turned out to be lime, or pure calcium oxide, Given said. When exposed to moisture in the air or lungs, calcium oxide becomes calcium hydroxide, a toxic chemical that causes severe irritation and burns to any area of contact.

The case was turned over to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office, Given said. A warrant was issued for Tinker's arrest, and he was apprehended Saturday in Las Vegas.

Tinker faces up to a life sentence and up to a $250,000 penalty if he is found guilty of the charge, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez.

"This is a serious crime that will be seriously prosecuted," said Martinez, adding that the recent spate of anthrax scares has made cases like this more high-profile.

[Mjaye]

>>>What does this say about police who brutally spray mace in people's eyes at point blank range?<<<<

Oh, Please. Having sprayed "mace" a few times myself as a peace officer, I assure you we don't run around "brutally" spraying people at "point blank range" as a lark. There will always be some people who misuse any tool, but pepper spray has saved more lives than you'll ever know, those of both officers and suspects. If I personally sprayed anybody as close as you described, I'd suffer the effects along with them. And, BTW, all of us had to be sprayed in the eyes at "point blank range" during training to see what it felt like before we ever had it issued to us.

[ChemistCat]

Illbay, I was planning to post some sarcastic comment about Houston having a city ordinance requiring mental illness as a condition for residency--until I read your post. If you vouch for the kid, I believe you. I've had a malevolent landlady who would, no doubt, have done something like this to a tenant if she had had enough imagination. Is a legal defense fund being set up for Jeremiah? Are there any police questioning the media's account??? Let us know. This kind of accusation can ruin someone's life for all time.

[riri]

Lime on the floor and a note = life in prison

Seven knives, mace, stun gun, illegal paperwork, knowledge of other suspects address, shaved body, nuclear power plant plans=free plane ticket to any American city of your choice and a free beverage at McDonalds.

yeeshh

[concerned about politics]

turned out to be lime : is used for making pickles, spreading on plants, or to dry things out.
I have a whole bag of it in the barn.
This is not a terrorist tool.
It could have spilled while moving, or the landloard was a left wing zealot looking for a book deal.
Only because you know the kid and feel he is OK. If he belives in God , and not a left winger, it seems as though a person like this would be clean.
"Thou shall not murder."

[Illbay]

I don't know what to believe. It's just I know this kid, and I just can't reconcile what I know of him with someone trying to purposefully injure someone out of spite.

I hope we will know more soon. When I do, I'll post an update.

[ChemistCat]

When I lose my temper, I say things I later regret. But deliberately putting down a harmful substance with intent to harm requires a baser character. We all have the capacity to do evil. I hope your friend did not do this, and I especially hope he doesn't get wrongfully convicted. I still fear his life will be substantially changed for a long, long time. I have a friend who was court martialed for possession of child pornography. It was CHEESECAKE, not kiddie porn--my husband saw it and says it's the kind of thing that were openly on military office walls in the 70s--but the prosecutors wanted him to get 50 years because a pediatrician determined the models looked underaged. He served 15 months, and has been out of both jail and the service for almost three years now. Missed the first year plus of his son's life, and worse, he keeps being harassed by Colorado authorities, his name was published in the paper right next to rapists' names (and without any mention that his offense had harmed NO ONE)...I am beginning to think he will never be allowed to keep a normal job or even keep this mess out of his son's awareness. I don't think it was a healthy or moral thing to have those images, but this guy is no predator. He is being treated exactly the way they treat people who have literally raped children.

I attended my friend's court martial and letters I wrote about his good character and kindness were introduced by the defense, though only my husband actually testified. The prosecutors were evil, that's all I can say; it didn't matter to them that nobody had been harmed, that the youngest model in any of the pictures couldn't have been under 16, or that this guy had only about six or seven suspect images out of literally thousands of GIFs in his possession. (He was one of those gif magpies...collected mostly comic book, Star Trek, etc.) They called him a "monster" and a "predator in training."

My friend and his wife had to file bankruptcy because of so many job changes and the Air Force deciding it had paid him too many benefits while he was in jail, and his wife is considering leaving him just because she's tired of this continuing to come up in her life when she did NOTHING wrong. These things don't just get the accused. They get whole communities, churches, and of course families.

[AlGone2001]

He was a nice, soft-spoken well-mannered Mormon kid who got married "too early" to his wife, when they were both 16 years old, but seemed to have a very good marriage.

The way one presents himself in public, or church life is not necessarily the life one lives.

[HaveGunWillTravel]

Oh, Please. Having sprayed "mace" a few times myself as a peace officer, I assure you we don't run around "brutally" spraying people at "point blank range" as a lark. There will always be some people who misuse any tool, but pepper spray has saved more lives than you'll ever know, those of both officers and suspects. If I personally sprayed anybody as close as you described, I'd suffer the effects along with them. And, BTW, all of us had to be sprayed in the eyes at "point blank range" during training to see what it felt like before we ever had it issued to us.

That's amazing. Almost unbelievable, but I believe you. Thank you for the information. I never would have guessed that. Actually, I was thinking of things I had seen on tv during riots. Offensive, Rodney King-like footage and the like. I was under the impression that people have died from that. Anyway, it struck me that if you could die from pepper spray, then both are either examples of serious offenses or not. Based on your and Illbay's input, it would seem that I may have overestimated the seriousness of pepper spray and underestimated the seriousness of putting lime on the floor. On the other hand, maybe both are vulnerable to being down played or up played. I don't know. I'm still inclined to think that, if no one actually died, that the kid does not deserve anything close to life in prison. As far as cops are concerned, without making any judgements, I just think that they should be held to the same standards as everyone else.

[Illbay]

That's very true. I keep thinking this guy was just a KID, married very young, etc. Maybe he did this, and just didn't really consider what he was doing, doesn't have the experience and the judgement, etc.

I hope we'll know the truth. In the meantime I'm thinking about his sweet wife, just an 18 year old kid herself, with one infant and one on the way.

[Illbay]

Well, we all know how the criminal justice system works. Even though this looks to be a Federal prosecution, I'm sure if the kid knows he did it, and cops a plea, he'll only end up spending a short time in prison.

But as ChemistCat pointed out, that doesn't count the fact that he's going to be scarred for this for the rest of his life.

[Mjaye]

>>>>As far as cops are concerned, without making any judgements, I just think that they should be held to the same standards as everyone else.<<<<

OK, I see your perspective (you mentioned what you saw during the riots). In the escalation of force standards that police officers are held to, the use of pepper spray is for people who don't respond to less invasive means of control, and it beats the heck out of lethal force, obviously. There have been relatively few scattered cases of a person dying after being sprayed, usually some humongous guy on drugs or with asthma, but there could be other reasons.

I no longer work on the streets at present, but I work in a detention setting for serious juvenile offenders where we can't use it (no nurse on duty 24/7, which is required). It would have saved some serious injuries to staff and minors if we had it; one staff was murdered in a similar setting before the Department issued ANY pepper spray to such facilities.

[Jeremiah B. Tinker]

This is Jeremiah B. tinker.....It was AJAX!!! to keep the ants out.