The police department in Hemet, California, says that a fire today at an evidence storage building may be the seventh attempted attack in a six-month string of incidents targeting the local police.
According to the Hemet Press Enterprise, Hemet police Lt. Duane Wisehart said today that local firefighters were called to the building, located behind the police department, at 2:30 am. The extent of the damage is reportedly still being assessed.
The fire could be the seventh in a string of “booby trapping” incidents targeting the Hemet police, which are thought to be the work of local white supremacist groups. One of the incidents, as Justin Elliot reported, involved “a nine-pound vintage military rocket round” that “was found on the roof of a a downtown Hemet building — and it was apparently pointed at the nearby police headquarters.”
A series of raids in May led to the arrests of 23 people on suspected parole, weapons and narcotics violations, with one skinhead group member charged in connection with the attacks.