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Tempe
police are searching for a suspect
responsible for throwing two firebombs
at a Kyrene Corridor home on April 16.
Two
Molotov-cocktail styled bombs were
thrown over the back fence of 1939 E.
Diamond Drive in Tempe.
Molotov-cocktails are crude incendiary
bombs, with the ones in question being
made of soda bottles filled with
flammable liquid Handiwipes as fuses.
Asleep at
home at the time were Tim, Cheri and
Naomi Brown. Naomi is Tim and Cheri’s
22-year-old daughter. The first
explosion occurred at about 2:20 a.m.,
Tim Brown said.
No one was
hurt in the incident and the structural
damage was limited to cosmetic, Tim
Brown said.
“They were trying to burn a concrete
building,” Tim Brown said. “I’m sorry,
that’s not going to happen.”
Residing
in the house for nine years, the Brown
family had heard of no such
incidents—until it happened to them, Tim
Brown said.
When
talking with the fire department, Tim
Brown said he was informed of a similar
incident happening less than a mile away
and less than a week earlier to a vacant
house at 2003 E. Diamond Drive in Tempe.
With a
house backing up to an alleyway, the
family investigated the likely staging
point of the attack and found a third
unused firebomb, the Browns said.
Neither the fire department nor the
police would take the bomb as evidence,
however, stating it was not found in the
backyard, Tim Brown said.
“Both of
them are ‘looking into it’,” Tim Brown
said.
All
parties involved remain stumped as to
who the possible perpetrator or
perpetrators were.
“I don’t
know anybody that has anything against
me,” Tim Brown said.
While no
real damage was done—except to Tim
Brown’s gardening hose, which he said
still functions—the family feels the
situation is still severe.
Tim Brown
put out a press release to the media
shortly after the incident, highlighting
that the crime is considered arson, a
class two felony that is punishable by
four to seven years in prison.
Both
bottles missed a window on the back of
the house, which if hit, could have done
far more damage, Tim Brown said.
“Just didn’t have enough arm,” Tim Brown
said. “Basically, we’re very, very
lucky.” |
