Bomb Kills Five in Van at Maryland Shopping Center

A bomb blew up a van in the parking lot of a shopping mall Monday, killing five people and shaking homes for blocks.

The 6 p.m. explosion in the parking lot of the Middlesex Shopping Center blew the van’s glove compartment a half-mile away, Police Officer J. L. Taylor said.

“Investigators found some explosive material around the car,” said Baltimore County Police Capt. Brian Uppercue. “They know it wasn’t a gas-tank explosion.”

Uppercue said it appeared all five victims--a man, a woman and three children--had been in the van when it blew up. He said it appeared the bomb was in the van at the time it exploded and that the van was stationary.

Police had no immediate motive for the explosion, in a suburb seven miles east of Baltimore. “I don’t have any indication that it was organized crime or a hit or something like that,” Uppercue said.

Albert Kellner, who lives nearby, said the the van had its “roof ripped off, doors blown off, bumpers blown off.”

The van was parked under a utility line, and the explosion knocked out power to some homes in the area.

Police cordoned off a 300-yard area around the vehicle. The bomb squad and officials from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were investigating.