Volunteer Firefighter Charged With Detonating Explosive Device Behind School, Making Bomb Threat
DUNDALK, Md. (WJZ) -- A volunteer firefighter with Baltimore County was arrested after he allegedly detonated an explosive device behind an elementary school in Dundalk last weekend.
According to Baltimore County Police, 20-year-old Anthony Dale Reed of Baltimore was arrested at his home around 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Police responded to Berkshire Elementary School just after midnight on Nov. 17 for a report of an explosion.
A Hazmat team also responded to the scene and found a small package explosive on a bench behind the school.
Surveillance video showers a man placing a box a bench, igniting the box and running away.
Other similar calls were made late Monday night at the same explosion -- callers reporting possible shots fired or an explosion heard.
On Monday, investigators found a charred area and debris near a tree behind the school around 11:38 p.m.
An officer canvassing the area saw a suspect in an alley behind the school and identified him as Reed.
Reed was carrying a scanner and identified himself as a volunteer firefighter.
The officer questioned him but released him from the scene.
Bomb tech officers and detectives from the county police's arson team identified Reed as the suspect in the video. Other detectives also linked Reed to a bomb threat from Nov. 15, when the called threatened to activate a destructive device in the Berkshire community.
Reed was charged with manufacturing, possessing and distributing a device, possession of an explosive or incendiary material with intern to create destructive device, second-degree malicious burning, trespassing on school grounds and threat of arson.
He is being held on a no bail status pending a bail hearing review.
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