The Texas Rangers have found no evidence linking a former paramedic to April’s fertilizer plant fire and explosion in West, Texas, a local district attorney told The Waco Tribune-Herald this week.
The ex-paramedic, Bryce Reed, was one of the first people on the scene of the tragedy, which left 15 people dead and around 200 others injured. A few weeks later, Reed was arrested for possessing bomb-making materials, and officials subsequently opened a criminal investigation into the explosion, raising speculation that Reed was somehow connected. But officials are now undercutting the speculation.
“Based on the review I have completed thus far, I have seen no evidence linking him to the fire and subsequent explosion. But I still have additional material to review,” McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna told the Tribune-Herald on Monday.
On Tuesday, a federal judge granted a motion from Reed’s attorney to have his trial on the bomb-making charges moved from Aug. 19 to Sept. 23. According to the Tribune-Herald, Reed was recently transferred from the private Jack Harwell Detention Center to the McLennan County Jail, where he was being kept in a segregation cell. Since his arrest, Reed has also spent six-weeks in a federal medical facility in Fort Worth under a court ordered evaluation. In July, while Reed was at the medical facility, his wife, Brittany Michelle Reed, filed for divorce.
“We are glad the judge granted the motion so we could have more time to evaluate all the evidence,” Reed’s attorney, Jonathan Sibley, told the Tribune-Herald. “He is back in Waco and looking forward to being able to address the allegations against him and preparing for his day in court, where we get a chance to present his case.”
