Bombs Found at Van Nuys Court Building

The discovery of a faulty bomb outside a court building in Van Nuys forced a four-hour evacuation of the area and a search Tuesday during which a second, similar device was found, police said.

There were no injuries and virtually no damage from the bomb, which went off weakly sometime between 4 p.m. Friday, when the complex was closed for the Columbus Day weekend, and 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, when the device was discovered, said Lt. Don Beasley, assigned to the LAPD’s criminal conspiracy section.

“It was more like it fizzled out,” Beasley said of the bomb. “We have no idea when it exploded. We have no reports of anyone hearing or seeing an explosion.”

The bombs were placed outside a temporary building at Sylmar Avenue and Sylvan Street that houses traffic courtrooms and offices for county employees, Beasley said. The building is at the northwest corner of the complex, which includes a public library, the San Fernando Valley headquarters for the Los Angeles Police Department and a Superior Court building.

No threats were reported to police before the bombs were discovered, and “we have no indication of a motive at this time,” Beasley said.

No Comment on Construction

Beasley declined to comment on how the devices were made. But Los Angeles police detectives called the bombs “improvised explosive devices” consisting of black powder and BBs inside plastic cylinders, with a wick at the end.

The detectives called the devices “weak,” and indicated that they would cause injury only if exploded at very close range. Police spokesman Lt. Dan Cooke said “they could possibly cause death or, more likely, serious injury.”

Police would not say anything more specific about the strength of the devices.

There was some confusion over the number of devices. Cooke maintained there were actually three. However, Beasley insisted there were just two. He said it was first believed that there were three because the one that exploded had split in half and scattered.

The first bomb, the one that went off, was found by head Municipal Court Clerk Margaret MacCurdy when she reported for work about 7:30 a.m. MacCurdy has a small office in the building and found the device outside the door, which showed no marks from the explosion.

Thought It Was a Toy

“I thought children had played in the area and left their toys,” MacCurdy said.

MacCurdy said she took the device to the front desk at police headquarters.

“They looked at it and stepped back from the counter, then immediately began to block off the lobby,” she said.

The bungalow housing the courtrooms and offices was evacuated immediately, but the library and Superior Court building were not cleared until 10 a.m. when the second, unexploded device was discovered and the search area was expanded. The one-block area was closed off until 11:30 a.m.

Court appointments for Traffic Divisions 110 and 114 in the courthouse were canceled and people expected to appear there were to be sent rescheduling notices.