FBI Releases New Details About NAACP Bombing

Colorado Springs police officers investigate the scene of an explosion Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015, at a building in Colorado Springs, Colo. Authorities are investigating whether a homemade explosive set off outside the bu... Colorado Springs police officers investigate the scene of an explosion Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015, at a building in Colorado Springs, Colo. Authorities are investigating whether a homemade explosive set off outside the building that houses a barber shop and the Colorado Springs chapter of the NAACP was aimed at the nation's oldest civil rights organization. (AP Photo/The Colorado Springs Gazette, Christian Murdock ) MAGS OUT MORE LESS
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Law enforcement officials on Friday announced the composite sketch of a person suspected to have been closely involved in the bombing of the NAACP office in Colorado Springs, though they are still reluctant to ascribe a motive to the incident.

Thomas Ravenelle, FBI the special agent in charge, at a press conference on Friday said investigators would release a composite sketch (hard copies at the press conference, via email later in the day) of person “who was in the area at the time of the bombing and appeared to have some involvement.”

Ravenelle said the individual, according to eyewitness reports, carried “something down the alley just prior to the bombing and returned to his truck empty-handed at the time of explosion.”

The individual, according to Ravenelle, is a balding white male who’s approximately 40 years old.

In response to questions about “several threats” to the Colorado Springs chapter, Ravenelle said there wasn’t several threats but authorities were looking into someone who was “upset” in the NAACP office in the weeks before the bombing.

“There was somebody in there who was upset several weeks back, we’re checking into that individual,” Ravenelle said.

As TPM previously reported, local and federal law enforcement said they were investigating the explosion which came from a crude improvised explosive device made with a gas canister. It went off near the building where the NAACP and a hair salon was located.

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Notable Replies

  1. with the suspect being id’d as a balding 40yo white guy (who knew?), good luck with the COS police stop and frisk program. every other person in COS fits that description.

  2. I must admit, I automatically jumped to the conclusion that this incident was racially motivated. But maybe this was, as others have suggested, a hair loss crime directed at the salon. After all, being 40, balding, and living with an old pick-up in Colorado Springs has to be no picnic; maybe the stylist told him he was running out of options…

  3. Avatar for fitley fitley says:

    When is Fox News going to release this news to the public?
    Ha. Never.

  4. Avatar for korvu korvu says:

    or suggest that it is terrorism.

  5. Indeed…likewise for the terrorist who killed two police officers in the Pocono Mountains area of Pennsyltucky, who they characterized as a “survivalist…”

    As Fox News admitted, since the media can’t tell who’s a terrorist without knowing the color of their skin, it stands to reason that those of a certain skin color are exempt from that label.

    As I recall, even the Secretary of Homeland Security was cowered into a retraction when she suggested we keep an eye out for acts of right wing home-brew terrorism by whites motivated in large measure by racism and Christian fundamentalist extremism.

    Gee, I dunno – could your inquiry mean fundraising season for the Klan?

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