Cops say teen blew off hand making bomb (...boom...)

Philadelphia Daily News ^ | 8.5.03 | TRYMAINE D. LEE

[mhking]

A teenager blew off one of his hands yesterday while mixing a dangerous cocktail of petric acid and other bombmaking chemicals, authorities said.

At 11:30 a.m., the quiet, tree-lined block of Witler Street near Hoff in the Northeast was converged upon by law-enforcement officers, the bomb squad and counterterrorism units, police said.

Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said Andre Kolyada, 18, was in the process of making some sort of bomb in his second-floor bedroom when the chemicals exploded.

No one else was injured and police said he was alone when his handiwork detonated.

Police said Kolyada initially told them he was injured when a firecracker exploded in his hand.

"He was very uncooperative," an officer on the scene said.

Witnesses said they heard the blast, then screaming and watched as Kolyada emerged from the house wearing nothing but his underwear and a blood-soaked T-shirt.

One neighbor described Kolyada's physical trauma as "horrible" and "hideous."

"It was pretty nasty," said Robert Greenway, a 43-year resident of the block. "I thought it was paint at first. It was horrible. He just sat there on those steps bleeding all over the place with his head between his legs."

Another said she watched as the "quiet, introverted" teen paced back and forth holding the bloody stump of his wrist.

"There was nothing there," said neighbor Becky Katz. "All I saw was him covered in blood and his wrist with the veins and ligaments hanging out."

She said Kolyada looked completely dazed.

Witnesses said after about 20 minutes of Kolyada sitting outside on the steps and pacing in front of the home, two men working on a nearby roof arrived to help.

The roofers grabbed rope from their truck and tightened it around his arm like a tourniquet.

He was rushed to Frankford Hospital's Torresdale Division and transfered to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital due to the extent of his injuries.

Kolyada lives in the home with his parents, who investigators said are Russian immigrants and speak little English, which made interviews difficult. They were interviewed by police sometime after the explosion.

Investigators believe the parents knew he was up to something but weren't exactly sure what, said Douglas Morgan, ATF group supervisor of the Arsenic and Explosives division.

Morgan said that once ATF investigators were inside the bedroom, they found several unidentified chemicals and manuals, books and papers describing how to make chemicals that could be used to make bombs.

He said the chemicals will be sent to ATF labs in Washington, D.C., for analysis. He said charges against the young man will depend on the results of lab tests.

Investigators in blue jumpsuits and gas masks emerged from the home carrying evidence that included a personal computer and a cardboard box filled with unidentified items.

Kolyada had recently graduated from Central High School. According to classmates who live in the neighborhood, Kolyada in the past had talked about making bombs.

The home is less than two blocks from the Anne Frank Elementary School, at Bowler and Hoff streets and about three blocks away from 7th Police District headquarters at Bustleton Avenue and Bowler Street.

[mhking]

Just damn.

If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[lilylangtree]

Trying to imitate the pali terrorists?

[noutopia]

Should of been his head.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Guess he needs a hand if he wants to make more bombs.

[Reeses]

Making explosives is a rite of passage for many boys. Thomas Edison and many others did this. I'm surprised I didn't blow up the family garage myself.

[JediForce]

I guess this means Russians with Chechneyan leanings need to be put on the "DO NOT ENTER THE UNITED STATES" list.

[SouthernFreebird]

I hope it hurt like hades, the miserable little sh*t wants to inflict that on others. He should do some time.

[steplock]

"He was very uncooperative," an officer on the scene said.

Well No SH**! If your hand had just been blown off you would not be in a very talkative mood either!

And with the hyper-fear that people have about any inkling of terrorism - if I were this kid, I definitely would not be saying anything either.

THis from a former teen-age bomb-maker rocket-builder cherry bomb popper, and general hooligan who today would have been in jail and sedated - but instead I'm fighting FOR these typical non-thinking MALE teenagers.

That's what teenage MALES do --- stupid things! I even made nitrocellulose, mustard gas, rocket fuel, burned the hell out my arm with an arc-lamp furnace I made --- I even made a small linear accelerator in high school! That would definitely had me labeled today as a sociopath!

IDIOTS!

[steplock]

"He was very uncooperative," an officer on the scene said.

Well No SH**! If your hand had just been blown off you would not be in a very talkative mood either!

And with the hyper-fear that people have about any inkling of terrorism - if I were this kid, I definitely would not be saying anything either.

THis from a former teen-age bomb-maker rocket-builder cherry bomb popper, and general hooligan who today would have been in jail and sedated - but instead I'm fighting FOR these typical non-thinking MALE teenagers.

That's what teenage MALES do --- stupid things! I even made nitrocellulose, mustard gas, rocket fuel, burned the hell out my arm with an arc-lamp furnace I made --- I even made a small linear accelerator in high school! That would definitely had me labeled today as a sociopath!

IDIOTS!

[Hildy]

Can someone give me an explanation as to why young men like playing with explosives. I just don't get it. This is not an unusual story. It happens everywhere.

[admiralsn]

Was his name Jack Ass?

[Cold Heat]

True enough, but the current climate kinda chnges how people react now.

[randog]

Witnesses said after about 20 minutes of Kolyada sitting outside on the steps and pacing in front of the home, two men working on a nearby roof arrived to help.

With neighbors like that, who needs enemies?

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Making explosives is a rite of passage for many boys.

I thought the same thing. But making bombs at 18? Eighteen is NOT a boy. I made my bombs when I was 10-12. Also made a pretty cool cannon that would shoot a tennis ball a hundred yards, and made multi stage rockets and launched payloads of beetles into low-altitude orbit. Once shot our science teacher's car keys 75 yards out and over the school pond and lost them for three hours in the weeds. Boy was he mad. But I digress.

[Eaker]

Making explosives is a rite of passage for many boys. Thomas Edison and many others did this. I'm surprised I didn't blow up the family garage myself.

I did the same things!! Kind of sad that we are now compared to pali-terrorist murderers!!!!!

People tell me that as much as I shoot that I am crazy not to reload. I inform them that the "crazy" would start IF I reloaded. I'll stick to factory rounds! Hot factory rounds, but factory none the less!!

Eaker

[chuckles]

It's a power thingy. You just have to be a male to get it. It's genetic. Kinda like girls playing with dolls. Never wanted to myself.

Now sticking a black cat in her head and watching it spin across the yard with shards of plastic ejecting from her skull, now thats good wholesome fun.

[Reeses]

Can someone give me an explanation as to why young men like playing with explosives.

It's because males alive today are the living descendants of the winning warriors and war makers. Through human evolution, war has been woven into us. Those of us alive right now are naturally very good at it and predisposed to it.

[AngrySpud]

He lost more than his hand, I'll bet. He probably has the hearing of an 80-year-old man now.

[zip]

A teenager blew off one of his hands yesterday while mixing a dangerous cocktail of petric acid and other bombmaking chemicals, authorities said.

Didn't quite make the Darwin Award finals this time.