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Man with explosives arrested in Mountain Home
A man who allegedly left a bagful of pipe bombs in Garden City was arrested early Wednesday morning in Mountain Home with two of the devices in the car he allegedly had been driving.
Bruce Eugene Loggins, 37, of Canyon County, was arrested in Mountain Home at 3:30 a.m. after being sought by Canyon County and Garden City authorities.
The arrest followed an incident that began Tuesday afternoon in Garden City when Garden City Police located Loggins, who was wanted in Canyon County on felony possession of a controlled substance and felony weapons charges, as well as possession of a stolen automobile and "absconding from parole."
Loggins was spotted in a stolen gold Oldsmobile Alero Sedan driving on Chinden Boulevard near 48th Street. Police said Loggins drove away "recklessly" in an attempt to elude officers. Police pursued Loggins to the area of Glenwood and Mountain View streets where authorities called off the chase for safety reasons when the pursuit entered an area where school children were present.
Late Tuesday evening Garden City police learned Loggins might be in Mountain Home and alerted local authorities.
At about the same time, a suspicious black duffle bag was found in the commons area of a trailer park on Chinden Avenue in Garden City, where Loggins had last been seen. The Boise Police Department bomb squad was called in and allegedly discovered several explosive devices in the bag. Ten homes in the area were evacuated while the devices were removed. They currently are in the hands of the Boise bomb squad. The exact nature of the devices found in Garden City has not been released, but are believed to be similar to the two pipe bombs found with him in Mountain Home.
The stolen car was found behind a house off McMurtrey Road. There was no address listed on the house.
Loggins was in the house, which was about 100 yards down McMurtrey Road, on the right-hand side, behind the Country Corner Market off Canyon Creek Road. Elmore County deputies, Idaho State Police officers, the Ada County SWAT team and Garden City authorities converged on the area while Mountain Home Police set up a perimeter cordon.
Loggins was arrested and taken into custody without incident by the SWAT team and jailed in Elmore County. Two other people were present in the home at the time of his arrest but they were not arrested at that time. Those two individuals have not been identified.
Two explosive devices -- identified as pipe bombs -- were found in the stolen car Loggins allegedly was using and an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team from Mountain Home Air Force Base was called in to remove the homemade bombs. Garden City Police said Loggins allegedly was involved in manufacturing explosive devices.
Besides charges in Ada, Canyon and Elmore counties, he could face federal charges as well in relation to the incident.
Loggins was arraigned Wednesday afternoon before Elmore County Magistrate Judge David Epis. He was charged in Elmore County with grand theft by possession of stolen property and unlawful possession of a destructive device. He also is being held on two warrants from out of county for possession of a controlled substance and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Ada County and Canyon County are both expected to seek extradition for charges in their jurisdictions. A preliminary hearing on the Elmore County charges will be scheduled Thursday.
Authorities don't know what Loggins' intentions were with the explosives, but officials did say Loggins had made threats toward law enforcement officers in the past. His prior criminal record, for which he was on parole, was not immediately released.
The investigation, involving several law enforcement agencies, is continuing.
Wednesday morning authorities cordoned off an area about 100 yards around the McMurtrey Road residence where Loggins had been arrested, while they waited for a search warrant to determine if any other explosive devices were in the home. Once that warrant was obtained, an EOD team from base and the base's bomb-sniffing K-9 dogs lead the search teams into the small house, but no other explosive devices were found.