4:30 Wednesday morning.
A bomb explodes at the Jackson County District Attorney’s office in Medfor, Oregon.
Medford police, fire trucks, and county sheriffs rush in… setting up a perimeter that extends several blocks in all directions: fearful more bombs are at the nearby justice buildings.
Approximately 5:20: as we move out, the District Attorney, Beth Heckert arrives.
“I don’t know what happened,” Heckert says. We ask was there anyone inside. She tells us no.
We speak with Lt. Mike Budreau with Medford police. He explains the explosion is the result of some kind of improvised explosive device – set up inside the parking lot of the DA’s office … meant to detonate, what appears to be a 5 gallon propane tank.
“We don’t believe this went as planned,” Bureau says, “we believe the suspect meant to detonate the propane tank. If so, the damage would have been extreme.”
As the sun comes up we see that damage: a window shattered… Sheriffs tell us the outside and inside of the building also hit by the impact.
“We’ve never had the DA’s office bombed like this,” comments deputy Bob Sergi, “or any other county building that I know of.”
Canine units, police, Oregon State’s Bomb Squad, SWAT, FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives all arrive.
“Units arriving on scene saw an individual who ran,” says Budreau… “but we never found that guy.”
Finally, at 10:30 officers hold a press conference at the Medford police department. Law enforcement still searching for whoever caused this explosion …in a targeted attack now being termed domestic terrorism.
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