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A terrorist in my backyard

iubud

Hall of Famer
Aug 7, 2003
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This morning, my wife was going to stop at the nearby McDonald's as she left town for work to get a drink. A police car turned his lights on as she left our street and went around her. At the McDonald's, police were blocking the roads. She asked me to look on social media to see if there were any reports of the cause. I told her it was crazy because there was a fire at the apartments nearby at 1:30 a.m. All this was going on within a mile of our house

A man walked into the McDonald's at 7:30 wearing a bullet proof vest and carrying a bag and a knife. People called police, but he left a bag by the road my wife would have driven by10 minutes later. They arrested the man that left the bombs. He matched the description of a suspect in the arson of the apartment building.

So far they have found a molotov cocktail and 2 pipe bombs in two bags. They have the suspect in custody and the bombs were disposed of on site and I heard and felt one explosion here in my home office. There is a large number of police looking for more bombs and will have a main north/south road tied up most of the day.

This is a very low crime area. There are three schools in the area, 2 private and one public. One bomb was found on school property. I am calling this person a terrorist. This isn't the same as Chattanooga because nobody has been hurt, but it shows that dangerous people with an intent to commit an act of terrorism can be living near you. People in the apartments are looking for a place to live, and people could have been hurt or killed if he had managed to detonate the bombs. I don't know if there were detonation devices in these bags or if the person was just trying to create a mess and burn people out of their home. I usually treat reports of suspicious packages lightly. I believe we are at a point that we all need to be a little more aware that the nutjobs have awakened and to expect more of these events.

Keep your eyes open and report anything that is out of the ordinary.
 
Here is the suspect that was arrested

CalebLoving2_1437673423056_21950714_ver1.0_640_480.jpg
 
Not sure which is his current mugshot. Waiting for the confirmation on the details of what he did between setting the fire and going into McDonald's with the pipe bombs. The EPD did a great job taking him in before he had a chance to do any more damage.

FeatureImage.jpg
 
Not sure which is his current mugshot. Waiting for the confirmation on the details of what he did between setting the fire and going into McDonald's with the pipe bombs. The EPD did a great job taking him in before he had a chance to do any more damage.

FeatureImage.jpg


The guy apparently has some health issues, which I'm interpreting to mean mental health issues. The suspect's name, BTW, is Caleb Loving.

From the Courier-Press:

Loving told investigators that he set the fire at his first-floor apartment by pouring camping fuel on his bedroom floor and then lighting a match.

That fire was reported by Loving’s caregiver. Loving and a roommate receive 24-hour care through Compass Residential Health, according to a police affidavit. There were no reported injuries from the fire or the explosives incident. The fire was mostly contained to Loving’s unit. None of the police affidavits in the case address to what degree Loving is in need of care.


This is more of a case of the US mental health system breaking down a bit than anything else.
 
The guy apparently has some health issues, which I'm interpreting to mean mental health issues. The suspect's name, BTW, is Caleb Loving.

From the Courier-Press:

Loving told investigators that he set the fire at his first-floor apartment by pouring camping fuel on his bedroom floor and then lighting a match.

That fire was reported by Loving’s caregiver. Loving and a roommate receive 24-hour care through Compass Residential Health, according to a police affidavit. There were no reported injuries from the fire or the explosives incident. The fire was mostly contained to Loving’s unit. None of the police affidavits in the case address to what degree Loving is in need of care.


This is more of a case of the US mental health system breaking down a bit than anything else.
What is disturbing is this same apartment complex had a fire a little over a year ago because a woman living at the apartments under supervision set her curtains on fire because a voice told her to. They lost an entire building in that fire.

Someone mentioned that Loving was known to have issues in the past with fire, but was doing well enough to live in the apartment. Has his past issues escalated to making pipe bombs? How was he supervised and still able to build pipe bombs? I suppose he could hide the materials, but this should change procedures in how they monitor their living spaces..

Residents in the complex have been complaining about people setting off fireworks between 10:30 and 1:00 for several days in a row. I haven't noticed them, but I did hear many bangs from fireworks at 1:30 a..m. that morning as well as the sirens from the units responding to the initial fire. Has he developed a fascination with explosions and maybe he is the person they have been complaining about? Maybe there were warning signs. The police treat calls about fireworks with a low priority and he could have gotten away with doing something caseworkers would have had wanted to know about.

I don't know how you can ever be sure someone has been cured of mental disorders or prevent something like this unless you live with the person. Mental disease shouldn't be a life sentence in a supervised home, but it seems that more people are needed to check up on those without family or someone that sees the person on a regular basis. We need more support and awareness of mental health.
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