Officials say a pipe bomb exploded and damaged a police vehicle in Maryland on Wednesday morning, according to a report.
The police cruiser was parked in a Thurmont, Maryland, driveway when the explosive went off, CBS News reported, citing unnamed sources. The blast caused damage to the cruiser’s windshield and threw out shrapnel into a nearby home. CBS said the pipe bomb exploded underneath the police vehicle, but local news outlets said the bomb was placed on the vehicle.
The officer using the cruiser wasn’t harmed by the bomb, which according to one source, was “legit.” It doesn’t appear there were any other injures in the blast. It’s unclear if the officer was inside the vehicle when the explosion took place.
“One of my officers went to his residence and parked his cruiser on the street as he usually does at about midnight and then around 12:30 one of the neighbors heard a big explosion,” Thurmont Police Chief Greg Eyler told the Frederick News-Post. “It looked like a metal pipe bomb was detonated on the hood and the windshield of the cruiser.”
The bomb fragments were now being analyzed by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the reports said. No suspects have been arrested.
“We'll be checking numerous hardware stores to maybe see where the metal pipe was purchased from … we’re just trying to get everything together,” Eyler added. “It’s still a very preliminary investigation at this point.”
Investigators are not sure about the motive. However, with the recent shooting deaths of five Dallas police officers and three Baton Rouge, Louisiana, officers, investigators said they’re not ruling anything out, the CBS report said.
