SALEM, Ore. — A 32-year-old Salem man has been charged with murder and other crimes for a bomb explosion at an Oregon bank that killed two law enforcement officers and critically injured a third, officials said Monday.
Joshua A. Turnidge was arrested on Sunday after police released surveillance photographs of him. The Marion County District Attorney’s Office didn’t identify him until Monday. He is to be arraigned Tuesday on multiple charges.
Officials have not yet said what the motive might have been for the bombing at the West Coast Bank branch office in the agricultural community of Woodburn, about 20 miles north of here.
The district attorney’s office didn’t say Monday what led officers to Turnidge, but said it wasn’t the “direct result” of a tip from the public.
Bombings are rare in Oregon, and the double killings from the blast Friday evening in Woodburn has saddened the law-enforcement community and resulted in outpourings of sympathy from civilians.
The bomb went off after police officers arrived at the bank to check on a suspicious object and then — for reasons that have not yet been explained — brought it inside the bank.
Turnidge was arrested in Salem, where he has lived at various residences over the past few years.
Authorities have said they believe the bomber is skilled in welding and electronics.
But they weren’t saying much Monday about Turnidge.
Court records show no serious offenses in Oregon — mainly traffic violations such as driving without a seat belt.
Public records show that Turnidge is divorced, has worked as a steelworker and has lived in several Oregon communities and Nevada and Washington state. The records show he served in the Navy at Great Lakes, Ill.
Neighbors said he recently lived about a month in a north Salem neighborhood with a woman and a girl, in a camper trailer at the home of the woman’s mother, and he hoped to start a business using cooking oil to fuel cars.
One neighbor, Ray Daniel, said the three kept to themselves and recently experienced a death in the family.
On Monday, police sealed off an area in another Salem neighborhood where Turnidge had just moved.
His landlord, Randy Jacobsen of Keizer, said he met Turnidge about a month ago.
“We’re still in shock,” Jacobsen said. “I don’t know if he’s guilty or not. If he is, I’d be shocked.”
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