A large police response surrounded the Kent Station parking garage New Year’s Day evening after juveniles reportedly detonated an homemade explosive device and then fled the scene.
Nobody was injured and no arrests were made.
At about 6:40 p.m. Jan. 1, the King County Sheriff’s Office, which oversees the Sound Transit Sounder parking garage at 320 Ramsay Way, responded to a report that some juveniles had detonated some sort of explosive device before fleeing in a vehicle, according to a Jan. 2 email from Manny Apostol Jr., a Sheriff’s Office spokesperson.
Sound Transit security also found an undetonated home explosive device, Apostol said. The Sheriff’s Office Bomb Disposal Unit and K-9 bomb dog responded, disposed of the device and did a thorough sweep of the garage from the top floor down.
“Fortunately, there was no damage to the structure aside from some scorch marks,” Apostol said. “At this time, the suspects have not been identified.”
One witness told the Kent Reporter that as many as a dozen police vehicles responded to the scene, with streets shut down and yellow police crime tape displayed. The parking garage is just north of Smith Street, east of Ramsay Way and used by Kent Station shopping center customers and Sounder train commuters.
Kent Police responded to assist the Sheriff’s Office, Police Chief Rafael Padilla said in a Jan. 2 email.
“Sound Transit Security called for assistance with juveniles blowing up homemade explosives,” Padilla said. “The youth suspects were gone prior to KPD arriving.”
Padilla said he was told the device was a sparkler bomb. A sparkler bomb is when multiple sparklers are bundled together and one is ignited to cause an explosion.
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