An Explosive Scene Defused

A man who police believe had some type of dispute over worker’s compensation on Tuesday parked a car filled with explosive devices inside an Anaheim business park where employment disability appeals are heard.

Police were called to the site just before 9 a.m. by witnesses because the driver of the car was walking around carrying a picket sign, shouting and wearing a device affixed to his body with duct tape.

Anaheim Police Sgt. Joe Vargas said the device appeared to be a small propane cylinder with wires and a battery coming out of it. The car, an older-model Volvo, was covered with writings criticizing doctors and lawyers. A small white coffin was strapped to its roof.

When officers arrived, the man stepped back in his car and tried to drive away. Officers stopped him and eventually arrested him on suspicion of possessing explosive devices. The suspect, Jesus Rodriguez Lozano, 51, of La Habra, was being held in Anaheim City Jail.

Investigators found additional homemade explosives rigged to gasoline canisters inside the car, which was searched by a robot operated by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad.

Detectives said they don’t know why Lozano brought the devices to the Anaheim office park but think the suspect had some type of dispute with doctors related to a worker’s compensation claim, Vargas said.

Lozano’s neighbors said he often complained about ankle and back pain caused by a workplace injury and that he was feuding with the government and others over compensation.

“He told me he couldn’t work because he was injured, and that he had lawsuits filed against several government agencies,” said Armando Huerta, an employee at Star Roofing Co., near the suspect’s La Habra home.

Police blocked off a half-mile section of Anaheim during the incident. Traffic was jammed along surface streets and on a nearby freeway in the vicinity of the Anaheim business park around Orangethorpe and South Raymond avenues as authorities closed streets and evacuated hundreds of workers.

The business park is home to the state Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Workers’ Compensation. Inside, lawyers argue appeals on worker’s compensation injury and disability cases.

Attorneys who handle cases at the board said they have long worried about security issues. Threats involving worker’s compensation cases aren’t unusual, they said, but there is no significantly visible security at the Anaheim facility.

“Sometimes people are very angry and have a lot of hostility toward us,” said attorney Wayne Singer.

Singer said the board handles about 50 cases every day but that no hearings were scheduled Tuesday.

“Emotions run very high,” Singer said. “I do have concerns [over security].”

Singer said he had never seen the unusual car where the explosives were found.

The white coffin was painted with slogans, such as “I need operation,” and “No good compensation to work.” On the car, specific lawyers and doctors were named, and a worker’s safety poster was plastered to the passenger window.

After the bomb squad secured the car, they searched Lozano’s trailer in La Habra but found no explosives, according to police.

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Times staff writer H.G. Reza contributed to this report.