Bomb-making Materials Found at Home of Teen who Threatened High School

June 3, 2005
School to search its facilities again after finding Youth had possession of explosives

BUCKINGHAM, Pa. -- Bomb-making materials were found Thursday in the bedroom of a Bucks County teenager accused of making a bomb threat at his high school, prosecutors said.

The 17-year-old youth, whose name wasn't released, was arrested after a search of his home and Central Bucks East High School in Buckingham Township, Bucks County District Attorney Diane Gibbons said.

In the home, authorities found at least eight pounds of potassium nitrate, which can be used for explosives, as well as fuses and housings for bombs, officials said. No explosives were found in the school but a second search was planned Friday and school was canceled for students.

Gibbons alleged that the boy was linked to a threat written in a school restroom saying that an explosion would go off at the school Thursday. The suspect told authorities of the threat on Friday.

Two other students, however, quoted him as bragging that he knew how to make bombs and planned to blow something up. They said he had shown them a photo of bomb-making materials and posted the photo on his Web site.

More graffiti later found in the restroom claimed that the youth wasn't the only person involved and repeated the threat to explode a bomb at the school Friday.

"We have to treat this as a credible threat," Gibbons said, according to The Morning Call of Allentown.

Gibbons said the 17-year-old was to be charged with possessing explosives or incendiary materials and making terroristic threats and was to remain in custody at least until Friday morning.