A suspicious backpack left along a Martin Luther King Day parade route in Spokane, Wash., held a radio-controlled pipe bomb that could have sprayed shrapnel at marchers in the parade.
Three parade workers spotted a backpack with visible wires on a bench at North Washington Street and West Main Avenue in downtown Spokane about 30 minutes before the parade was scheduled to begin Monday. Authorities rerouted the parade while officers from the Spokane Police Department's bomb disposal unit worked on the bomb. FBI special agent Frank Harrill, the supervisory senior resident agent in Spokane, told ABC News that the backpack was "a viable device." "The potential for lethality was clear," Harrill said. The local bomb squad neutralized the device, he added. According to an FBI press release, "Subsequent preliminary analysis revealed the backpack contained a potentially deadly destructive device, likely capable of inflicting multiple casualties." http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fbi-pipe-bomb-found-spokane-washington-mlk-parade/story?id=12642275 -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
