LAWTON, Okla_Lawton police
discovered a bomb inside a parked SUV Thursday morning and called in the bomb
squad from Oklahoma City
to disarm it. Investigators said it is homemade. Around 1, officers were called
to a home near Northwest 3rd and Euclid
Avenue on reports of shots being fired and a
suspicious vehicle in the area. When
they arrived, they found a white SUV that matched the caller's description. Not
long after they searched the abandoned vehicle, they found the explosive device
and called for help disarming it.
Investigators
said they have contacted the owner, but have not arrested them or anyone else
in connection with the crime. They also haven't released any details about the
device they found. But you can still see broken glass in the parking lot from
where police broke out one of the windows of the vehicle to get a better look
at it late Thursday night.
Residents told
police they heard shots being fired in the area and saw a suspicious white SUV
driving in the area. When police arrived, they couldn't find any bullet casings
but did find the suspicious car. They looked inside and saw what looked like a
bomb.
"Normally
if we run across an explosive device in Lawton
it is a military type device that's been brought off post," Captain Ralph Szatkowski
said.
Police could
see this was not a device like that, so their strategy changed.
"It
becomes very tense because that is an absolute unknown so we back all our
personnel back and clear the area as well as we can."
They called in
the Oklahoma City Bomb Squad for help while warning nearby residents what was
going on. A woman who lives just feet from where the vehicle was parked said
she was asleep when officers came banging at her door about the bomb scare.
"It was
nerve wracking. I'm so glad they fixed that. I could be dead right now honestly
but it was scary," neighbor Allison Dirks said.
Another
resident, just two doors down from the action, said officers warned her not to
step out.
"I was
scared. I was worried it was just going to go off," Carla Reid said.
Luckily the
bomb squad was able to safely disarm the explosive device.
"A bomb
device or any kind of explosive device like that is something that we really
don't have any control over. We don't know if somebody is laying away watching
us and are going to activate the device when we approach or what the
circumstances may be," Szatkowski said.
Captain Szatkowski
said LPD currently has the disabled device locked away in a secure location. Investigators
will continue to follow any developing leads to find out who is responsible for
the homemade explosive device.
