The LookoutFBI looks at racial motive for thwarted MLK Day bomb in Spokane
Late Tuesday afternoon, news broke that someone had planted a bomb along a Martin Luther King Day parade route in Spokane, Wash. The bomb -- placed in a backpack and left in a parking lot -- was found by a city employee who alerted authorities, and the bomb was defused. According to the FBI, the device was "likely capable of inflicting multiple casualties."
On Wednesday, the Associated Press is reporting that the FBI is investigating the case for racial motives. The Spokane region is rife with white supremacist organizations like the Aryan Nation and has seen many anti-government and racist incidents in the last 30 years, AP says.
"The confluence of the holiday, the march and the device is inescapable, but we are not at the point where we can draw any particular motive," said Frank Harrill, the head of the FBI office in Spokane.
The agency is offering a $20,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction.
(Photo from Spokane's MLK Day celebration: Spokesman-Review/J. Bart Rayniak, via AP)
