Man Held After Tear Gas Grenade Hurts 33 : Weapons: It is Pomona’s second dangerous incident this year involving a military explosive.

A Rancho Cucamonga man was arrested early Saturday morning on charges that he tossed a military tear gas canister into a busy Pomona intersection, injuring 33 people--two of them seriously--when they were overcome by fumes.

Pomona police said 20-year-old Larry Thomas McGee was being held in the County Jail on a felony charge of using tear gas. Bail was set at $30,000, an amount police investigators said reflected the large number of people harmed by the gas bomb late Friday afternoon.

“The wind blew a 200-foot cloud among the residents,” Pomona fire investigator Jim de Souza said. “Kids playing in the area were overcome by the gas.”

The injured ranged in age from 4 to 60. The canister erupted at 7th Street and Garey Avenue, near the Pomona Civic Center, police said. Seven ambulances and 10 other pieces of fire equipment were sent to the scene.

The victims suffered watery eyes and had difficulty breathing. Safety officials treated 10 people at the scene and sent 21 victims to the hospital, where they were treated and released. Two others remained at Glendora Community Hospital, where they were in stable condition Saturday, being treated for inhalation of toxic fumes, according to Efren Vargas, a hospital spokesman. “They’re awake and they’re alert,” he said.

Police said the canister burst about 5 p.m. Friday when it was thrown from a residence in the 300 block of South Locust Street.

McGee was visiting a friend who kept a live military tear gas grenade in his room, De Souza said, and McGee allegedly pulled the grenade’s pin and tossed it into the street.

McGee, along with the bomb’s apparent owner and a third young man, fled, police said. McGee was arrested about 4 a.m. Saturday at the Mission Boulevard home of a friend in Pomona, police said.

Warrants were issued for the other men, police said.

According to De Souza, this was the second Pomona incident this year involving a dangerous military device. Last month, a highly explosive training device was confiscated by officials and detonated.

He speculated that increased military reserve activity may be responsible for the increased appearance of military paraphernalia in the hands of the public.