Law enforcement officers say bomb technicians’ decision to disable an explosive left along a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade route in Spokane, rather than blow it up, helped lead to the arrest of a suspect with ties to a white supremacist group.
FBI agent Frank Harrill said Thursday that t
he preserved bomb was sent to an FBI lab in Quantico, Va., where it could be meticulously examined for evidence.
Harrill, agent in charge of the FBI office in Spokane, said a local bomb squad displayed extraordinary expertise and courage that allowed the FBI to process a complete device.
Harrill declined to reveal what evidence the FBI was able to get from the bomb and backpack that surrounded the device. That information remains contained in sealed court documents.
A national organization that tracks hate groups says the suspect, Kevin Harpham, was an avid poster on a white supremacist Internet forum.
The Southern Poverty Law Center says Harpham made more than 1,000 postings on the Vanguard News Network site, many of them under the pseudonym “Joe Snuffy.”
In 2008, a Kevin Harpham complained on the website that he couldn’t access his “Joe Snuffy” account.
A 2010 posting mentioned the radioactive element thorium was useless in making bombs. Another, from 2006, said, “I can’t wait till the day I snap.”
A federal law enforcement official confirms investigators are reviewing online postings attributed to Harpham as part of their probe.
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