Date: Fri 04-Jun-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

police-bombs-Buchholz

Full Text:

Sandy Hook Youth Charged With Making Bombs

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Police charged a Riverside youth with manufacture of bombs and illegal

possession of explosives after finding two homemade bombs at his residence

early on the morning of May 29.

Charged is Steven E. Buchholz, 16, of 104 Waterview Drive, who was released

after processing and was scheduled for a June 3 appearance in Danbury Superior

Court to answer the charges.

Police said they believe the Buchholz case is related to a recent firebombing

incident in Botsford.

Early on the morning of May 26 someone firebombed a small office building at

the D'Addario Sand and Stone Company gravel mine on Button Shop Road in

Botsford.

Police said the Buchholz case also may be related to a recent Sandy Hook

firebombing.

Late on the night of May 16 someone threw a firebomb against a rock causing a

brush fire off Jo-Mar Drive near Interstate-84 in Sandy Hook.

Police said arrests are expected in connection with both of those firebombing

incidents.

Those two incidents also may be related to firebombings which occurred last

fall along Bancroft Road and Philo Curtis Road, police said.

The explosive devices found at the Buchholz residence were not firebombs,

police said. "They were different types of explosive devices, different types

of bombs," said Detective Sergeant Henry Stormer, who also is a deputy fire

marshal.

Buchholz obtained information concerning bomb manufacturing from the Internet,

Sgt Stormer said. "They're a major influence, I believe," he said of bomb

making formulas available on the Internet.

"We feel there's a connection between Jo-Mar Drive, D'Addario's and this

(Buchholz) case and we are looking at other persons" in terms with pressing

additional charges, Sgt Stormer said.

Police said that at about 1:30 am May 29, they received information that

Buchholz was in possession of homemade explosive devices at his residence.

Police said they then went to his home where they found two bombs. The Sandy

Hook Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company stood by at the home as a precautionary

measure.

The Connecticut State Police Bomb Squad was dispatched to the scene and it

disarmed the two bombs.

Sgt Stormer described the bombs found at the Buchholz residence as "small-

time vandalism devices." The bombs found are devices which could have caused

damage and injury but not major damage, he said. The bombs found could have

injured the person or persons who made them, he said. He termed them "small,

very crude devices."

"These things were being manufactured in a home, and no one was aware of it,"

he said, noting that the bombs were made of common household items.

Sgt Stormer said police believe several people are involved in the recent

firebombing incidents. Police have information concerning who was where when

certain actions occurred, he said, adding that police are now in the process

of "separating fact from fiction."

"At this point, I haven't uncovered anything sinister. I think they were

fooling around," Sgt Stormer said.

"We really haven't heard any stories... that there's any huge conspiracy or

any attempt to blow up public buildings," he said. "We uncovered no plans or

attempts at (damaging) any public buildings," Sgt Stormer said.

Botsford firefighters responded to an arson set off by firebombs early May 26

at the D'Addario gravel mine. Five firebombs, commonly known as Molotov

cocktails, were thrown by someone at the gravel mine's scale building on the

north side of Button Shop Road about 2 am. Three of the five firebombs

ignited, setting the small office building ablaze and causing an estimated

$5,000 in damage. There were no injuries.

Police officer Dominick Salvatore who was on patrol at the time of the fire

initially responded to the call and put out the blaze with a fire

extinguisher. The fire posed an explosion hazard to gasoline pumps near the

scale building but the pumps did not ignite.

Sandy Hook firefighters responded to a set brush fire late May 16 off Jo-Mar

Drive reported by a motorist passing by on nearby Interstate-84. Someone threw

a firebomb against a rock causing the device to explode and burn adjacent

vegetation in a « to ‹-acre area. The fire was set along the isolated section

of Jo-Mar Drive closest to I-84.

Firefighters collected evidence from that firebombing as well as from the

D'Addario fire bombing.