odysseus
Member
Yep, just as I thought. Whole lot of people hitting the "panic button" a little too easily, and name dropping "IED" in front of CNN.
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SAN FRANCISCO
Starbucks 'bomb' found to be harmless
Preliminary tests apparently find no explosive material
Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, January 12, 2006
San Francisco authorities are no longer sure a device found in a Starbucks bathroom -- which they characterized for two days as a potentially lethal bomb -- had any explosive material in it after all, and they say the man who left it may never be charged.
On Wednesday, agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives analyzed residue left behind after police blasted the device with a water cannon to render it safe.
Results of the test have not been released, but preliminary checks revealed no explosive material, according to authorities who spoke on background.
Earlier, police had described the device as a quarter-stick of dynamite inside a flashlight casing and said it could have killed or dismembered someone. It was found Monday afternoon at the Starbucks at 1401 Van Ness Ave., prompting authorities to evacuate the store and an apartment building above.
Some authorities suggested Wednesday that a small blast heard when police turned the water cannon on the device -- first thought to have been caused by explosive material -- was in fact the result of high-pressure water hitting flashlight batteries.
Late Tuesday, police arrested 44-year-old Ronald Schouten on a drug charge and said they were looking at whether he was the person who had left the device in the coffee house.
On Wednesday, investigators said Schouten had told them he had found the device on the street and thought it might come in handy for self-defense. They said they believed him.
"He said he just found the thing, somewhere downtown -- it was not far away (from the Starbucks),'' said Lt. Dan Mahoney of the special investigations detail.
Sgt. Neville Gittens, a police spokesman, said that Schouten's account -- which he did not elaborate on -- was "plausible and consistent'' with other evidence in the case and that Schouten had no "terrorist or anti-Starbucks agenda.''
When he was arrested on Van Ness Avenue two blocks from the Starbucks, Schouten was wearing the same clothes as a man shown in surveillance photos taken Monday afternoon at the Starbucks, police said. Investigators had described that man as a person of interest in the case.
Schouten appeared briefly in court Wednesday in an unrelated cocaine possession case. Superior Court Judge Lucy McCabe rejected his public defender's request to divert Schouten to a drug treatment program and ordered him to return to court Friday.
The public defender, Mary Mallen, declined to comment on the Starbucks matter.
Schouten is also facing possible charges in an unrelated burglary, police and prosecutors said. Evidence in that case apparently was found on Schouten when he was arrested Tuesday. The burglary happened Monday, the same day the device was found at Starbucks.
Police said Schouten had walked into the Starbucks at about 1:15 p.m. Monday, asked for leftover coffee grounds and then gone into the bathroom after getting a key. He returned the key and left.
Schouten was apparently living at the Interfaith Council's roving winter shelter before his arrest, according to people who knew him.
In 2004, he lived at the Mission Hotel on South Van Ness Avenue until being evicted for failing to pay his rent, hotel general manager Carlos Mendoza-Hernandez said. He said Schouten was not dangerous.
"You wouldn't think he would hurt a fly,'' Mendoza-Hernandez said. "He told me he was a person who suffered from anxiety."
"He's very scared of people," Mendoza-Hernandez said. "The whole time he lived here, he never hurt anybody.''
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SAN FRANCISCO
Starbucks 'bomb' found to be harmless
Preliminary tests apparently find no explosive material
Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, January 12, 2006
San Francisco authorities are no longer sure a device found in a Starbucks bathroom -- which they characterized for two days as a potentially lethal bomb -- had any explosive material in it after all, and they say the man who left it may never be charged.
On Wednesday, agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives analyzed residue left behind after police blasted the device with a water cannon to render it safe.
Results of the test have not been released, but preliminary checks revealed no explosive material, according to authorities who spoke on background.
Earlier, police had described the device as a quarter-stick of dynamite inside a flashlight casing and said it could have killed or dismembered someone. It was found Monday afternoon at the Starbucks at 1401 Van Ness Ave., prompting authorities to evacuate the store and an apartment building above.
Some authorities suggested Wednesday that a small blast heard when police turned the water cannon on the device -- first thought to have been caused by explosive material -- was in fact the result of high-pressure water hitting flashlight batteries.
Late Tuesday, police arrested 44-year-old Ronald Schouten on a drug charge and said they were looking at whether he was the person who had left the device in the coffee house.
On Wednesday, investigators said Schouten had told them he had found the device on the street and thought it might come in handy for self-defense. They said they believed him.
"He said he just found the thing, somewhere downtown -- it was not far away (from the Starbucks),'' said Lt. Dan Mahoney of the special investigations detail.
Sgt. Neville Gittens, a police spokesman, said that Schouten's account -- which he did not elaborate on -- was "plausible and consistent'' with other evidence in the case and that Schouten had no "terrorist or anti-Starbucks agenda.''
When he was arrested on Van Ness Avenue two blocks from the Starbucks, Schouten was wearing the same clothes as a man shown in surveillance photos taken Monday afternoon at the Starbucks, police said. Investigators had described that man as a person of interest in the case.
Schouten appeared briefly in court Wednesday in an unrelated cocaine possession case. Superior Court Judge Lucy McCabe rejected his public defender's request to divert Schouten to a drug treatment program and ordered him to return to court Friday.
The public defender, Mary Mallen, declined to comment on the Starbucks matter.
Schouten is also facing possible charges in an unrelated burglary, police and prosecutors said. Evidence in that case apparently was found on Schouten when he was arrested Tuesday. The burglary happened Monday, the same day the device was found at Starbucks.
Police said Schouten had walked into the Starbucks at about 1:15 p.m. Monday, asked for leftover coffee grounds and then gone into the bathroom after getting a key. He returned the key and left.
Schouten was apparently living at the Interfaith Council's roving winter shelter before his arrest, according to people who knew him.
In 2004, he lived at the Mission Hotel on South Van Ness Avenue until being evicted for failing to pay his rent, hotel general manager Carlos Mendoza-Hernandez said. He said Schouten was not dangerous.
"You wouldn't think he would hurt a fly,'' Mendoza-Hernandez said. "He told me he was a person who suffered from anxiety."
"He's very scared of people," Mendoza-Hernandez said. "The whole time he lived here, he never hurt anybody.''
