3 Students Arrested after 2 Explosions at School

Three Westminster High School students were arrested Friday on suspicion of possession of an explosive device after a pipe bomb went off in a student’s locker and another bomb exploded elsewhere.

On the same day, at Huntington Beach High School, three explosive devices were found which were similar to the homemade bomb that injured a probation officer on campus Tuesday.

Both schools are in the Huntington Beach Union High School District.

The Westminster incident occurred at 11:15 a.m. Friday when a pipe bomb exploded in a hallway locker after students had gone to their fourth-period class.

While police and firefighters were at the scene, a second device exploded in a truck in the school parking lot, according to Police Lt. Bob Burnette, who added that a third device was discovered in the car of one of the three students suspected of planting the locker bomb.

Both explosions caused minor injuries, authorities said, but they declined to release details.

Luke Matalu, 18, was arrested on suspicion of possession of an explosive device, Burnette said. The other two students, whose names were withheld because they are minors, were also arrested and released to their parents.

In the Huntington Beach incident, a probation officer sustained a severely injured left thumb and index finger on Tuesday when an explosive device that he was examining went off.

During the investigation of that explosion, one of the student suspects turned over two similar devices to Principal Gary Ernst, and a third was found on a roof at the school, Ernst said Friday. The bomb unit of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department safely detonated one of the explosives and defused the other two.

Three students were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of making the cigarette-size explosives, and Ernst said Friday that he has recommended their expulsion.

Senior Timothy Dale, 18, and two underclassmen--whose names are being withheld because they are minors--have been suspended through the end of the school year, while the school board decides whether to expel them.