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Police detain 'unusual' man seen near reservoir
By RICHARD LIEBSON AND BILL HUGHES
rliebson@thejournalnews.com
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: May 12, 2005)

WHITE PLAINS — Authorities blew up a suspicious knapsack they found after stopping — and stunning — a Patterson man who had been driving yesterday near the Kensico Reservoir wearing a Kevlar helmet and body armor.

The 43-year-old man, whose identity police did not release, was stopped in Scarsdale by White Plains police and FBI task force members who followed him through the city. Officers shot the man with a stun gun after he refused repeated orders to stop walking toward them after they pulled over his gray sport-utility vehicle at Post and Gorham roads about 10:20 a.m.

Authorities said a camera was mounted on the SUV's dashboard. The Westchester County Bomb Squad was called in after canisters, including one containing an unidentified liquid, and a knapsack containing batteries, wires and a computer circuit board were found in the back of the car. The knapsack was exploded with a water cannon at the scene; the canisters were taken away to be examined in the coming days.

White Plains Public Safety Commissioner Frank Straub said "no explosive devices were found in the backpack," and it was hit with the water cannon as a precaution. The car was inspected by bomb-sniffing dogs and members of the bomb squad, and impounded for further examination.

A member of the FBI task force became suspicious, police said, when, on his way to work, he spotted the man near the reservoir. Authorities would not comment on why the man was wearing protective gear or what he was doing, but Straub said he would be given a psychological evaluation. They would not speculate on what he might have planned to do with the camera, canisters or backpack items, although Straub said that "the average person doesn't carry this kind of stuff around with him.

"We have an individual who is acting in a very unusual manner. It's still an open investigation," Straub said. "We need to do some more work to determine exactly what his intent was.

"You can't call the guy a terrorist or terror suspect at this point," he said. "That would be taking it to an extreme level."

He had not been charged with a crime.

Post Road was closed in both directions for about four hours as police, FBI agents, bomb squad members and county emergency services officers congregated at the scene. Scarsdale Police Chief John Brogan said police evacuated 10 to 12 houses in the area as a precaution.

Residents a few blocks from the scene said they didn't know what was going on and were not particularly afraid.

Straub praised the cooperation between the different law-enforcement agencies involved in the incident, and the restraint shown by the officers who pulled the man over and took him into custody.

"What could have been an extremely dangerous situation was well handled, properly handled and safely handled," he said.