Cops: Suspect Tossed Bombs from Car During Chase
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ATF(WASHINGTON) — The man suspected of targeting two policemen and one woman with pipe bombs this week was caught Thursday after leading police on a chase through Montana in which he tossed explosives from his car, authorities said.
Police had been on the hunt for Laurence Alan Stewart, 25, since Tuesday morning when he allegedly detonated three pipe bombs within a few minutes of each other at separate locations in Virginia’s Stafford County. Stewart apparently turned taillights on his pursuers and headed across the country to Montana before the authorities caught up with him there. He was nabbed in the late morning.
The targets of Stewart’s Virginia attacks were a county detective, a county deputy and an ex-girlfriend of Stewart’s, police said.
While no one was killed or injured in those attacks, authorities had been worried Lawrence represented a threat to the public until he was caught.
“It was my fear that he could have been driving around with a car load of bombs and unfortunately we were right,” Richard Marianos, special agent in charge of the ATF’s Washington, D.C. field office, told ABC News on Thursday. “Fortunately, we were able to stop him before anyone got hurt.”
No policemen were injured in the pursuit, Marianos said.
Stewart had been charged with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of arson and one count of using a weapon or device for a terror act stemming from his alleged actions in Virginia, police said.
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