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Posted on 11/28/2001 4:14:10 PM PST by ChemistCat

Police seize weapons cache in Baldwin

Sheriff's deputies seeking to serve a protection from abuse order at an upscale home in Baldwin stumbled upon an arsenal of military weapons, including heavy machine guns and bazookas, in a booby-trapped basement, authorities said Wednesday.

An arrest warrant stemming from a domestic violence case was being prepared against William C. Bloomquist, 43, on charges of aggravated assault and marijuana cultivation, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office said.

As of early afternoon, Bloomquist's whereabouts were unknown, Sheriff Mark Dion said.

The weapons were found in a hidden room in the basement of Bloomquist's two-story home on a high ridge in this rural community 30 miles northwest of Portland. The arsenal contained 81 firearms including several semi-automatic weapons and a recoilless rifle, more than 20,000 rounds of ammunition and several practice rockets and hand grenades.

A Maine State Police bomb squad that was summoned to the home determined that Bloomquist was licensed to possess the weapons, said Stephen McCausland of the state Department of Public Safety. Bloomquist was a 1998 graduate of the University of Maine School of Law and claimed to own a security company, according to Sheriff Mark Dion. He said investigators knew little else about Bloomquist and had no idea why he kept military weapons.

A call to Bloomquist's lawyer, Douglas Hendricks of Cornish, was not immediately returned.

The investigation began Monday when a detective met with Bloomquist's wife, Katariina Pulkkinen, regarding a report that her husband told her he had been involved in several homicides in Maine, Dion said.

While those admissions appeared to be unfounded, the sheriff said interviews with Pulkinnen led to the issuance of a protection order arising from "an ongoing pattern of assaults" by Bloomquist.

"The domestic violence alleged to have occurred in this relationship ran the gamut from physical assaults to the use of dangerous weapons including a stun gun and flashlight," Dion said.

The investigation also revealed that Bloomquist was growing marijuana inside his home, the sheriff said. The weapons cache was discovered Tuesday night when deputies accompanied Pulkinnen to the home to try to serve the protection order, protect her from further harm and help her retrieve her personal belongings.

Deputies found Bloomquist's weapons and some processed marijuana in a hidden room in the basement and 11 marijuana plants averaging 2 to 3 feet in height in another room. Dion said. "He had created a hidden hatch to the armory," the sheriff said. "You had to pull on the frame of a bookcase and it would open like a door, like in a James Bond movie." A cord on the back side of the bookcase was attached to a small device and there was a warning label aimed at intruders. Dion said that if the device had been detonated, it would make "a large bang" but cause no injury.

"Given what we could see by peering in, we were't about to call his bluff," Dion said. Deputies at the home received a phone call from Bloomquist from an undisclosed location inquiring about what they were doing on his property, Dion said.

Dion said Pulkinnen, a social worker who has been married to Bloomquist for about 10 years, was in a safe location. The couple have no children.

The contemporary-style home was newly built and sits on 110 acres, with lots of glass, officials said. "It's definitely a high-end home," Dion said.

Capt. Kevin Joyce said there was a rolling gun mount on the front deck that could accommodate a .50-caliber machine gun and provide good fields of fire.

"This could have been our version of Ruby Ridge," Joyce said. "He had 20,000 rounds of ammunition. He could have been there a long time."

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