Police Clear Two Suspects in Three Smoke Bombings

Two men suspected of setting off a string of smoke bombs in Los Angeles 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 on Thursday at the youth’s Bell Gardens home.

Both were held on suspicion of igniting an explosive device. Last week, a smoke bomb went off at the Tetelestai Christian Center in Torrance, forcing 300 to flee.

Mitchell was held on $34,000 bail. The youth, whose name was withheld because of his age, was released.

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.

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

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

Santa Ana and Garden Grove police “have pretty decent descriptions on our suspects,” Woods said. “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 police rule out the pair as suspects in the bomb attack at Trinity Broadcasting Network studios on March 28. In that incident, a smoke bomb spewed noxious fumes in the audience during a live broadcast, causing minor injuries to 15 people.