Man Charged After Police Find Explosives, Illegal Guns in Home

The district attorney’s office Friday filed criminal charges against a Burbank man accused of possessing two homemade explosive devices, and illegal guns at his home.

Vagarshak Zarukyan (CQ), 20, was charged with possessing explosive devices, a machine gun, an Uzi carbine altered to be a machine gun, a deadly weapon and ingredients to make a destructive device, according to the district attorney’s office.

“He’s a dangerous guy. He really does obsess on this stuff,” said Burbank Police Sgt. Scott Wilson of the Crimes Against Persons Detail.

Zarukyan was arrested Thursday night after park police approached his car at Stough Park in Burbank and saw several shotgun shells and .22 caliber cartridges in the car,Wilson said.

When Burbank police searched his car, they also found a ski mask, a hunting knife, an 8-point throwing star called a shuriken, which is used in martial arts and is illegal to possess in California, and handwritten notes about manufacturing explosive devices, Wilson said.

Wilson said Zarukyan allowed police to search his apartment in the 1600 block of North San Fernando Road, where they found an altered Uzi, two explosive devices, more literature on how to build explosive devices and a banned semi-automatic weapon.

Zarukyan, who moved here from Russia four years ago and lives with his mother, had a fascination with explosive devices as a young child, and read pamphlets, magazines and surfed the Internet to find out how to make them, Wilson said.

Zarukyan, who is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail at the Burbank City Jail, will be arraigned Monday in Burbank Municipal Court.