Smoke Bombing Suspects Cleared in Several Attacks

Two men suspected of setting off smoke bombs in Los Angeles County apparently were not involved in three similar incidents in Orange County, authorities said Saturday.

Spokesmen for the Santa Ana and Garden Grove police departments said Larry Wayne Mitchell, 27, a transient, and a 17-year-old youth had been cleared in three of four Orange County cases in which smoke bombs were set off. Mitchell and the youth were taken into custody by Torrance police Thursday at the youth’s Bell Gardens home.

Both were booked for investigation of igniting an explosive device at a Torrance church last month. Mitchell was held on $34,000 bail. The youth was released. Police withheld his name because of his age.

Torrance Police Sgt. Ronald Traber said evidence suggests that the two could also be linked to the Wednesday smoke bombing at the Los Angeles Times offices in Los Angeles, which forced the evacuation of 1,000 employees. Mitchell remained in custody Saturday, a Torrance police spokesman said.

But Lt. John Woods of the Garden Grove police said, “Neither ourselves nor Santa Ana (police) are looking at (the suspects) as being involved in the Orange County incidents.”

Smoke bombs have been planted recently at the Crystal Cathedral and a Christian bookstore in Garden Grove, the Orange County Register in Santa Ana and the Trinity Broadcasting Network studios in Tustin.

Woods said Santa Ana and Garden Grove police “have pretty decent descriptions on our suspects. They do not match with the two arrested in Torrance so it doesn’t appear, at least directly, that they’re linked to our situation.”

A Tustin police spokesman said Saturday that his department was waiting for photographic and other evidence from Torrance before ruling the pair out of the bomb attack at Trinity Network studios on March 28. In that incident, a smoke bomb spewed fumes in the middle of an audience during a live broadcast, causing minor injuries to 15 people.

Nobody was seriously hurt in the attacks, and police haven’t determined a motive. But the author of a letter left with a device at the Register claimed to be the “Antichrist” and listed several religious targets.