Coconino County Sheriff’s investigators have discovered that the man who stored pipe bombs in a Valle mini storage unit was locked up in a New York State prison at the time the unit was being cleaned. The man is currently serving a ten year prison sentence for charges related to unlawful possession of explosive devices and firearms on an unrelated incident.
On Thursday, August 21, 2014 Coconino County Sheriff’s Dispatchers received a call from an individual who reported finding multiple improvised explosive devices in a mini storage unit located in Valle, Arizona. Upon their arrival Deputies learned that the reporting party had been asked to clean out the mini storage unit. As he was doing so, he found what he believed to be improvised explosive devices. Deputies identified what they believed to be two pipe bombs.
Flagstaff Police Department Explosive Device Response Team responded to the scene. While bomb technicians were in the process of rendering the explosive devices safe, one of the pipe bombs detonated; no one was injured.
Coconino County Sheriff’s Detectives with the assistance of the Flagstaff Police Department Explosive Device Response Team, Explosive Device Technicians from the Arizona Department of Public Safety, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms served a search warrant on the mini storage unit. The investigators found numerous explosive items to include pipe bombs, improvised explosive devices, shot gun shells with a fuse attached to the primer, and other items.