The CHP received a threat earlier in the day. The two seem unrelated, they say.
By Steve Moore and Karin Marriott, The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, Calif.)
BANNING, Calif. - A police robot picked up a live bomb Tuesday night off a counter in the lobby of the Banning Police Department and safely detonated it outside, authorities said.
Ronald Lee Berry, 22, of Banning found the pipe bomb near Lincoln and 22nd streets and brought it to the police station about 2:45 p.m., police Cmdr. Marshall Palmer said. Authorities evacuated about 30 people from police headquarters and a portion of City Hall.
Police issued a safety plea to the public to not try to transport suspicious items.
“Leave the device where it is and contact us,” Palmer said.
Berry apparently thought the device wouldn’t explode because it was wet, Palmer said.
At about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, the California Highway Patrol received a 911 call indicating a bomb would go off at a courthouse, said Riverside County sheriff’s spokesman Dennis Gutierrez.
The bomb threat affected Riverside County Superior Courts in Banning, Indio and Palm Springs. The courthouse in Banning is on Hays Street, across from the Banning Police Department and City Hall.
A search at the Larson Justice Center in Indio before it opened Tuesday turned up nothing, Gutierrez said.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department evacuated up to 50 people from the Banning courthouse about 8:15 a.m. and searched the building, but found nothing, Palmer said. People were allowed back into the building after the search.
Gutierrez said he did not believe the morning threat was related to the pipe bomb brought into the Banning Police Department.
Police were evacuated for more than three hours.
“We were lucky that by doing the right thing and by practice, we got our people out of there and nobody got hurt,” Palmer said.
Berry set the pipe bomb on the counter in the afternoon believing he was doing his civic duty, Palmer said. A glass window separates police officials from the public in the lobby.
Detectives questioned Berry on Tuesday night and members of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Hazardous Device Team went to his house.
Authorities said he is not a suspect.
“He thought he was doing a good deed,” Palmer said.
The device left at the police station was made of three-quarter-inch PVC pipe and had a fuse on the end, officials said. There was no explanation for why it may have been left in the street where Berry said he found it.
The entire Police Department and the east wing of City Hall, including the finance and city clerk departments, were evacuated. Emergency calls were routed to Beaumont police.
At about 5:05 p.m., a Sheriff’s Department bomb-squad robot rolled down the sidewalk and into the police lobby. Once it was inside, officers guided the robot from a monitor.
At 5:33, the robot emerged from the lobby carrying the bomb. The robot put the bomb into a hollow ring on the ground, then fired a round that blew it apart. The specially reinforced ring directs any blast upward. After a loud boom, all was clear. Police had closed off a square-block area, including Ramsey Street in front of City Hall.
The bomb episode didn’t delay a Banning City Council meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m.