High School’s ‘Elite’ Build a Bomb That Explodes: Boy Dies

A straight-A student, described as being among the elite at University High School, was killed early Wednesday when a pipe bomb he and two friends made exploded as they drove along a quiet residential street in Del Cerro.

San Diego police identified the dead youth as Michael Kevin Ham, 17, of Escondido.

The blast about 3:30 a.m. awakened dozens of people in the 6200 block of Madra Avenue, not far from the Lake Murray area of Mission Trails Park.

Karen Karros, who lives across the street from where the blast occurred, said she saw one teen-age boy searching the street frantically and yelling: “I can’t find his (bleeping) hand, I can’t find his (bleeping) hand!”

Then, suddenly, from inside the car, she heard a calmer voice saying: “Get back in! Let’s go, let’s go!” The car then sped off, Karros said, heading downhill toward Navajo Road.

Detectives from the Metro Arson Strike Team said the bomb detonated as Ham--sitting in the front passenger seat and holding the bomb outside the car--rode in a 1985 Ford Escort with two classmates, identified by a University High administrator as Paul Giacalone and Daniel Smith, both of San Carlos. Smith, the driver, suffered minor injuries in the blast and was treated at Alvarado Medical Center. Giacalone, who was riding in the back seat, was unharmed. Both were being held in the custody of juvenile authorities.

Cache of Explosives

Donald Necochea, an investigator with the Metro Arson Strike Team, said Smith led police to his family home in the 6700 block of Bestwood Court, about two miles from where the blast occurred. He told police his parents were vacationing in Hawaii.

Necochea said investigators confiscated a large cache of explosives of the type used to make “Beirut-type bombs” at the home.

A semi-automatic rifle was found earlier in bushes near where the bomb went off. Karros said neighborhood residents told police they saw one of the occupants of the car put the gun there moments before the car sped off.

Necochea said authorities are investigating a possible connection between Wednesday’s incident and similar explosions around the county. Twice in the past month pipe bombs have exploded in parked cars, one blast occurring not far from University High.

“These kids are bored, they experiment with explosives, this is what happens,” Necochea said.

“These kids might have been involved in a couple more of these explosions, but we definitely don’t think they were involved in any involving abortion clinics. We are, however, exploring any and all connections involving this recent spate of explosions.”

(In the last few years, there have been a number of bomb threats at area family-planning clinics that offer abortion services. On Monday, a man was arrested after allegedly planting a pipe bomb at a San Diego clinic.)

Brother Kenneth Gillund, the academic assistant principal at University High in Linda Vista, said Ham was the son of Dr. Charles and Carol Ham, who live in the 3400 block of Lomas Serenas Drive in an affluent section of Escondido. Dr. Ham is an orthopedic surgeon with offices in Poway. An employee there had “no comment” when contacted Wednesday.

‘He Was a Good Boy’

A woman who answered the door at the Ham residence, but declined to give her name, said of the 17-year-old, “He was a good boy. We just know he was a curious boy, and we don’t know why this happened. He was my grandson.”

Gillund said school officials were “stunned and speechless--we can’t believe these kids would be involved in something like this. There was never a hint of anything like this. All three are very quiet, very good, very serious students--among the best in our school, our elite.”

Gillund said Giacalone was the school’s best math student and had recently qualified for entrance into a prestigious honors program. He said all three finished their junior years this spring. He described University High as a small, private Catholic school that draws students from all over the county.

Necochea said the bomb that exploded in Ham’s hand was made out of galvanized pipe, 2 inches in diameter, about 6 to 8 inches long and filled with black powder.

“You just rig up something to set it on fire--to detonate it,” he said. “You throw it, you set it, you light a fuse.”

Based on interviews with Giacalone and Smith, Necochea said investigators believe the youths learned how to make a bomb from reading directions in an internationally distributed terrorist magazine.

“They learned it from one of these illegal magazines, these terrorist-type magazines that are easier to get than people might think,” Necochea said. “A lot of foreign countries are distributing these, hoping terrorists will read them.”

Necochea said Ham and his friends were experimenting with the bomb in a canyon bordering Madra Avenue and Mission Trails Park. When the bomb failed to detonate, he said, “the kids got leery” and decided to return to Smith’s home on Bestwood Court, about two miles away.

Tore Hole in Chest

“As they’re taking it back to the house by car, Ham is holding it out the window,” Necochea said. “It explodes in his hands. It basically takes his hand off and tears a big hole in his chest.”

San Diego Police Officer Dennis Sadler, who stopped the car after the explosion, said the impact of the blast severed Ham’s right arm.

Sadler was responding to a report of a shotgun blast when he spotted the youths’ car near Navajo Road and Park Ridge Boulevard and pulled it over.

Authorities said the passenger door of the two-door sedan was caved in, the back window was blown out, and all the other windows were dislodged.

Sadler responded to the pleas of Ham’s friends by immediately calling an ambulance. They told Sadler they were en route to a hospital. Authorities said Ham was dead before the ambulance reached the scene.