Home explodes in Arlington, VA with nutter inside!
It seems like this guy was a bit nutty, paranoid, conspiracy theorist. I think maybe this guy needed some psychiatric help that he wasn't getting.
It's a shame that it was a duplex and some other folks were affected (not in the home, but certainly lost their home/belongings).
Quote:
The FBI and local authorities are examining the cause of a home explosion that erupted in northern Virginia on Monday night as police were trying to execute a search warrant, as well as “concerning” social media posts allegedly made by a suspect who investigators believe was barricaded inside, authorities said.
The suspect, 56-year-old James Yoo, is presumed to be dead after human remains were found at the scene of the incinerated home in Arlington, just 5 miles southwest of the nation’s capital, Arlington County Police Chief Andy Penn said Tuesday.
Medical examiners will work to positively identify the remains and determine the cause and manner of death, he said.
When the explosion happened, police were trying to serve a search warrant at the duplex where Yoo lived over suspicions that he had fired more than 30 flare gun rounds from the home into the surrounding neighborhood earlier in the day, police said. The warrant was obtained to secure any weapons in the home and “ensure there would be no ongoing threat to the community,” he said.
The explosion led to evacuations at several homes, officials initially said. The county’s deputy manager for public safety, Aaron Miller, said Tuesday that 10 households were impacted by the incident and the county has been helping some of them by providing shelter, toiletries and other necessities. It’s unclear to what extent the households were impacted.
Arlington County emergency vehicles fill the street near the scene of a house explosion Monday evening.
Police identify suspect in home that exploded near DC and are investigating ‘concerning social media posts’ he allegedly made
Since the explosion, investigators have uncovered “concerning social media posts” allegedly made by Yoo, the police chief said.
LinkedIn posts from Yoo’s account espouse rambling and at times incoherent conspiracy theories against government officials, law enforcement, media outlets and, in one post on Friday, his neighbors whom the post accuses of being spies and collecting his information for unnamed handlers.
The explosion and the suspect are being investigated by the Arlington County Fire Department and a team of northern Virginia law enforcement, with assistance from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Penn said.
Here’s what else we know about the incident and the suspect so far.
Suspect had been calling and writing to FBI for years, authorities say
Both the FBI and Arlington police said Tuesday that they had previously interacted with Yoo, but none of the encounters led authorities to open investigations.
Yoo had communicated with the FBI for several years through phone calls, letters and online tips, said David Sundberg, assistant director in charge of the agency’s Washington, DC, field office.
“I would characterize these communications as primarily complaints about alleged frauds he believed were perpetrated against him,” Sundberg said. The communications did not prompt the agency to open any investigations, he added.
Prior to Monday, Arlington police had documented only two calls for service at the address over the past few years, both for complaints about loud noise, according to Penn.
Workers look at a home that exploded in Arlington, Virginia, on December 4 and rocked a neighborhood with a powerful blast, on December 5, 2023. Three police officers received minor injuries but were not taken to hospitals, the department said. Officials are unaware of anyone else who was hurt, they said at a news conference.
Officers first came to the home in Arlington’s Bluemont neighborhood shortly before 5 p.m. Monday due to a report of possible shots fired near the residence, police said.
Further investigation revealed the suspect had discharged a flare gun from the home more than 30 times into the surrounding neighborhood, police said.
“Officers attempted to engage with the suspect without success,” Penn, the police chief, said Tuesday. “A search warrant was ultimately obtained to allow our officers to secure any weapons to ensure there would be no ongoing threat to the community.”
Police tried to communicate with Yoo by phone and through loudspeakers, but he wouldn’t respond and remained barricaded inside, according to police.
As an emergency response team breached the front door, the suspect fired several rounds, from what is believed to have been a firearm, inside the home, Penn said.
Officers continued trying to engage with the suspect and bring him into custody but could not locate the source of the suspected gunfire, Penn said. They then began to deploy “non-flammable, less lethal chemical munitions to multiple areas within the residence where the suspect was believed to be hiding” to get the suspect to surrender, the chief said.
Sometime afterward, around 8:25 p.m., the home exploded, police said.
Video taken by a witness shows law enforcement vehicles surrounding a multi-story home when an explosion sends a plume of flames, embers and smoke into the air and debris raining down into the street. The force of the explosion blew the roof and several walls apart, causing the structure to collapse.
Firefighters worked into early Tuesday to extinguish the blaze, said Jason Jenkins, assistant chief of the Arlington County Fire Department.
Other residents of the duplex where Yoo lived were evacuated before the explosion, Penn said. Fire personnel had also turned off the gas supply to the home before the explosion happened, according to Jenkins.
“Thankfully, there were no serious injuries to any officers, other public safety officials or community members,” Penn said.
__________________
Steve
'08 Boxster RS60 Spyder #0099/1960
- never named a car before, but this is Charlotte.
'88 targa SOLD 2004 - gone but not forgotten
I am keen to hear what caused such a huge explosion.
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Si non potes inimicum tuum vincere, habeas eum amicum and ride a big blue trike.
"'Bipartisan' usually means that a larger-than-usual deception is being carried out."
I am keen to hear what caused such a huge explosion.
I'm guessing that the guy inside did it. He sounded like the type that could either booby trap his house and intentionally (or possibly mistakenly) set off the booby traps when he thought "they" were coming to get him.
__________________
Steve
'08 Boxster RS60 Spyder #0099/1960
- never named a car before, but this is Charlotte.
'88 targa SOLD 2004 - gone but not forgotten
SOLD 2004 - gone but not forgotten
12-10-2023, 05:29 AM
