Posted on 09/14/2010 2:47:00 PM PDT by STARWISE
Evanston police are investigating an early morning explosion that left one man dead Tuesday and led to the evacuation of residents and the closure of a middle school.
Police secured the area around the Nichols Middle School and Fitzsimmons Park, where the decapitated body of an unidentified male and an explosive device were found shortly before 6 a.m.
At Tuesday afternoon news conference, Evanston Police Commander Tom Guenther said authorities were taking the explosion extremely seriously but did not yet understand what the bombers intentions were.
Police refused to identify the man who died and said they had not determined a motive yet in the incident. Police said it was too early to determine whether the incident was as suicide or not.
They also refused to say whether the man was decapitated despite reports from eye witnesses who saw his body.
Dale Wyatt, who lives near the park, was walking his dog when he discovered the body of a man that he estimated was between the ages of 25 and 30.
He said the mans body was lying on a walkway close to the parks tennis courts.
At first I thought it was a joke. I thought it was a mannequin I found, Wyatt said.
He had no head, no nothing above the neck.
The mans body had no burn marks but there was a strong smell of gunpowder, he said.
Next to the man was a black container that looked like a discarded container of antifreeze, he said.
Authorities searched a unit in a nearby apartment building where the man apparently lived.
Guenther said FBI forensics experts will examine the mans computer for clues.
No suicide note was found, he said.
The dead man was known to another Illinois police agency, Guenther said, which is now assisting the investigation. He declined to say what had brought the dead man to earlier police attention.
Nichols Middle School, 800 Greenleaf St., was closed for the day and will likely remain shut Wednesday, police said.
Guenther said police received a call about 3:56 a.m., from residents who reported hearing a large explosion. Officers checked out the area, he said, but initially found nothing.
The exact location of the explosion from citizen reports wasnt determined, it was very general, he said.
At about 5:48 a.m., Wyatt alerted police after he found the body and saw what looked like an explosive device next to it.
Evanston police responded and determined that it could be an explosive device and moved to secure the area, Guenther said.
He said officers then went door to door to set up a perimeter and also contacted the Cook County Bomb Squad, which detonated the device found at the scene around 9:30 a.m.
Evanston/Skokie School District 65 said in a written statement that at this time, there is no indication that it is school-related.
Evanston Ald. Donald Wilson said the victim was not of school age.
John Shelley, a neighbor who lives across from the school, said he was dozing off in front of the TV around 4 a.m. when he heard a loud explosion.
Wyatt said he was asleep around 4 a.m. when his dog Buddha kept just whimpering and whining. After about a half hour I said OK, fine, Ill take you outside, buddy.
He said they were walking near the fence of the park when something caught his dog's nose.
I thought it was a rabbit or something, Wyatt said.
~~ Ping!
I never did see much followup on the pizza delivery guy who claimed a kidnapper affixed a bomb around his neck (locked) and forced him to rob a bank (he was held by police in a parking lot until the bomb detonated killing the man). That’s a few years back, I think it was Baltimore but I could be wrong on that.
And then there was the guy who had a backpack with explosives who “killed himself” outside a packed college football stadium.
Who took his head?
He may not have been decapitated, in the strict sense.
Sounds like Chicago has a case of the mexican mafia gang problem there. That’s exactly the tactics used by the ruthless gang lords to execute folk in Juarez mex. AND I hear Chicago has a HUGH illegal mexican community there...HUGH!
/johnny
Dear G-d! I can’t imagine seeing anything like that!
Obama land is exciing, isn’t it?
*snip*
He said his dog Buddah led him to the body of a shirtless man whose head was missing and whose legs were folded behind him. A shopping bag and a black plastic jug lay nearby, and there was a strong odor of what he thought was gunpowder.
“I thought my dog was chasing a rabbit, but when I got close it was a body without a head,” he said. “There was a weird smell in the air. I wasn’t expecting what I saw.”
The body was near tennis courts, between a fence and a pine tree, he said.
*snip*
He also said neighbors told him they had heard a loud explosion about 4 a.m., something confirmed by area residents. He said police told him they had come out earlier to investigate the sound of the explosion but were unable to find anything at that time.
About two blocks from the school, Evanston police cordoned off an apartment, which police sources said was where the victim lived. He still has not been identified. The Cook County medical examiner’s office said he blew himself up, although whether intentionally or by accident was not immediately clear.
“google pizza delivery bomb collar to find more. It happened in Erie, PA.”
I remember that. Death by cop stupidity.
mexicans like to export ....
“And then there was the guy who had a backpack with explosives who killed himself outside a packed college football stadium.”
In Oklahoma. He was a muslim convert and bad bomb maker.
Yeah, but other than that he was a credit to his dorm. Or at least to his floor.
What did this guy know and when did he know it?
;^)
It probably wasn’t a suicide. If it was a suicide, why did the lately decapitated have at least TWO pipe bombs?
Anybody know the whereabouts of Tony Rezko?
I think he had an apartment with a Pakistani friend who didn’t notice he was making TATP in his kitchen, or that TATP was all over the kitchen.
But, anyway, the FBI told us he wasn’t a terrorist and not to be alarmed.
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