Bomb squad officers in West Chester detonated three suspicious devices discovered inside a borough parking garage Monday morning, police said.
At about 7:45 a.m., a parking attendant at the Mosteller Garage at 401 E. Gay St. called police after finding two packages and a third unidentified item on the property, police said.
In early reports, police described the third item as a pipe containing visible wires, circuitry and an unidentified liquid, police said.
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Authorities are working to determine who placed a “dangerous” bomb outside a well-used, downtown West Chester parking garage, prompting building evacuations and detouring traffic for hours Monday
Local police called in the Montgomery County Bomb Squad, which serves the 5-county area. Montgomery County Sheriff John P. Durante, who heads the unit, said officials determined about 1 p.m. that a suspicious package, which had been found earlier by the parking attendant, was a device “that can maim and cause death.”
And John T. Hagenman, an spokesman for the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which is involved in the investigation, said the bomb was “designed to injure…this was not a device used by someone who was playing around.”
Experts successfully detonated the explosive, Durante said. He said the bomb squad would maintain a presence in the area for at least 24 hours as the investigation proceeds.
“Without getting into any specifics – and certainly we don’t want to compromise any ongoing investigation – somebody obviously intended ill harm,” said West Chester Police Chief Scott L. Bohn. “It certainly was a dangerous device.”
Officers who searched the premises found two additional packages inside, prompting the closure of several nearby businesses, including the YMCA, which had to relocate its child day-care center, said Bohn. The additional packages proved to be nonexplosive, he said.
Bohn also said the door to the 24-hour garage’s electrical panel, which is normally locked, was open. He said he did not know yet whether the open door was related to the explosive.
Sections of High, Chestnut and Walnut streets were closed most of the day and traffic was detoured around the site until 5:30 p.m. when everything but a stretch of Chestnut by the garage was reopened.
At the same time, as police and ATF agents were still collecting evidence, drivers who had left their vehicles in the garage before it was closed in the morning were allowed to retrieve them. The garage will be open for business as usual Tuesday morning, police said.
Bohn said authorities do not believe the incident resembled the work of the so-called “suburban bomber.”
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