Bomb Inquiry Looks at Porter Ranch as Target

Los Angeles police are investigating whether two bombs found in the northern San Fernando Valley in the past 16 days are related to the proposed $2-billion Porter Ranch development, detectives said Friday.

“We are definitely checking into it and have been since the first incident in December,” Detective Robert Muldrew said. “But we haven’t found anything connecting them,” he added, and the bombs “could be just merely vandalism-type incidents.”

The most recently discovered bomb was dismantled by a police bomb squad early Friday morning.

The device was found under a flatbed truck on Sesnon Boulevard in Northridge by the Fire Department, which was summoned by a security guard patrolling the adjacent Porter Ranch Development Co. construction site, Muldrew said. The bomb burst into flames but failed to go off, catching the attention of the guard, Muldrew said.

On Dec. 20, a bomb explosion blew out the windows and damaged the seat of a construction vehicle parked about two miles to the east, on Sesnon Boulevard near Louise Avenue in Granada Hills, Muldrew said.

There were no injuries in either incident.

Neither bomb was on the 1,300-acre site of the proposed Porter Ranch development, which is being considered by the Los Angeles City Council. If approved, it will be the largest single development in the city’s history.

Muldrew would not describe either bomb except to say that they were “very different” from each other.

The December bomb damaged a front-loader belonging to M.J. Brock & Sons, a construction company with no connection to the Porter Ranch development, a spokesman for the developer said.

The bomb discovered late Thursday night was beneath a truck owned by a nearby resident, who has no connection to the project, the spokesman said.

However, the locations where the bombs were found correspond with each end of a related proposal for a bridge across nearby Aliso Canyon.

Porter Ranch developer Nathan Shapell has agreed to help finance the construction of the Sesnon Boulevard bridge, which some residents oppose because of the traffic it would bring to their neighborhoods.

Detectives checked with aides to City Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents the area, and Mayor Tom Bradley and were told that no threats or claims of responsibility have been made with regard to either bomb, Muldrew said.