Anaheim Police Find Bombs in 2 Boys’ Homes

Two eighth-grade friends in Anaheim have been arrested after police found a recipe for disaster at their homes: two bombs, bomb-making material, two stolen guns, 1,500 rounds of ammunition and an infatuation with Nazis.

Police said Thursday they are trying to determine what the boys, ages 13 and 14, were going to do with their arsenal.

Anaheim police Detective Ed Cook said the two had recently set off a pipe bomb at their school, South Junior High, and one student told police the boys had threatened to blow up the building.

The pipe bomb exploded a few weeks ago on campus while school was out and caused little damage. Cook said the boys had exploded other bombs in drainage pipes at a local construction area.

Authorities found out about the boys and their weapons Wednesday when a fellow student’s remark was forwarded to authorities.

During an unrelated conference, a student and his mother were talking with Assistant Principal Ron Milner about the importance of choosing the right friends. The mother told Milner he might look at the activities of a certain student. “He has weapons,” her son told Milner. School officials then called police.

“The system works,” said Craig Haugen, the assistant superintendent for administration of the Anaheim Union High School District.

The boys were taken into custody late Wednesday and held in Juvenile Hall. They were charged with possessing an explosive device.

The arrests come a month after two high school students in Littleton, Colo., shot to death 13 others before killing themselves. Gunfire once again erupted at a high school Thursday, this time in suburban Atlanta, where a 15-year-old sophomore was arrested after shooting six students on the final day of classes, police said.

Since the Colorado tragedy, increased concern has led police across the country to look into constant reports of threats and kids with guns. Anaheim police have checked about a hundred calls involving children and weapons. Lt. Steve Walker said this call was the first to uncover a serious situation in his city.

The Anaheim case echoes the guns, the bombs and the Nazi sympathies found in the Colorado shootings.

“The line between a kid building something to hear the loud boom and to acting out a copycat situation that we’ve seen in Colorado, that line could be thin, it could be thick,” he said. “Fortunately, we were tipped off on this situation and hopefully nipped it in the bud before it could develop into any greater menace.”

About 7 p.m. Wednesday, police evacuated homes surrounding the middle-class home that the 14-year-old shares with his mother and two brothers on Virginia Avenue.

The Orange County sheriff’s bomb squad searched the home and found a pipe bomb in the boy’s dresser drawer. The bomb was big enough “that someone would have been hurt seriously” had it blown up, said Anaheim Detective Sgt. Harold Parkison.

Police also found a bolt-action Enfield .303-caliber British military surplus rifle, a Ruger Blackhawk .45-caliber single-action handgun and several large capacity magazines elsewhere in his room.

Cook said police believe the weapons and ammunition were taken in a burglary of a nearby house several months ago.

The older boy’s mother told police she knew her son had a large cache of ammunition but didn’t know whether it was live, Cook said. She said she didn’t know he had guns.

Cook said the mother felt police were blowing the situation out of proportion because of the Colorado shooting.

“She didn’t believe her son did anything seriously wrong,” Cook said. “She pointed out she collects salt and pepper shakers. Why can’t he collect the things he collected, the ammunition and those things?”

The 13-year-old lives with his mother in an apartment on busy East Lincoln Avenue about a mile away from his friend’s house. Investigators found a bomb in his room made from gunpowder and BB’s and wrapped with duct tape. The bomb did not have a fuse, unlike the pipe bomb. Investigators also found a small amount of ammunition and materials to make a bomb.

Police also found Nazi paraphernalia and photographs in the room the boy shares with his brother, Cook said. He could not provide details.

The detective said the junior high students were part of an informal group of about five students with a growing interest in Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler and the “power of the uniforms and equipment.”

“They shared some of those values and were increasingly being directed toward forming a cohesive group based on those values,” Cook said. “It was in its infancy, but it appeared to me it was the direction they were going.”

At the school, Haugen said there was no indication the suspects had threatened anyone. “We don’t think this was a situation where they were going to take this into school,” he said.

Milner said the boys are bright, and neither has been in trouble.

Neighbors said the 14-year-old was being brought up by a single mother who struggled to make a living and raise her children. Several neighbors described the boy as quiet and “a good kid.” But they also said that he and his brothers often stayed out until 11 p.m. during the week.

“I think this was a cry for help,” said neighbor Terri Lynn Santo.

Karen Lionello, a neighbor, said some of the boys threw lemons and rocks into her yard and teased her dogs. “Everybody here knows there wasn’t enough supervision,” she said. “Those kids have been a menace.”

At the Lincoln Avenue apartment of the 13-year-old, building manager Andrew Wu said the boy was always respectful and complied when told not to ride his skateboard on the sidewalk.

But Wu said he noticed a year ago that the boy had traded in his white T-shirts for all-black outfits and new friends.

Teachers at South were called into a faculty meeting at 7:30 a.m. Thursday where Principal Carolyn Houston told them what had happened. The teachers related the information to students during first period.

Officers with the Anaheim gang enforcement team, counselors and a psychologist offered sessions with students who needed counseling. A letter from the principal explaining the situation was sent home with each student.

Times staff writers Michael Luo and Eleanor Yang contributed to this report.