Man Not Linked To Bombs, Robberies

Fri., Aug. 23, 1996

From Wire Reports

There are apparently no links between a man arrested in a stolen van here and two bombings and bank robberies in Spokane, federal law enforcement officials said Thursday.

The van, found in the parking lot of a motel where the man was arrested Wednesday, resembles the two white, customized panel vans that were used as getaway vehicles in the Spokane bombings and robberies, said Michael Byrne, an FBI supervisor in Spokane.

Authorities refused to identify the man, who was scheduled to make a preliminary appearance in a Yakima County court Thursday.

Investigators have been unable to interview the man, but doubt he played a part in the Spokane crimes, Byrne said this morning.

“We do not see any ties between that van and that guy with our situation here in Spokane…at this time,” Byrne said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Kresse said the FBI was still investigating possible links to the Spokane bombings.

“But they didn’t hold out a lot of hope. Right now, they said, it looks pretty thin,” Kresse said Thursday morning after talking to FBI agents.

The man, a construction worker from the Seattle area who reportedly has been working in Yakima, was being held in the Yakima County Jail for investigation of possession of a stolen vehicle, police said.

A police patrol officer who noticed the van’s license tags had expired ran a computer check and discovered the vehicle was reported stolen from the Everett area, police Sgt. Craig Baird said.

Federal bomb experts were called to search the van because the vans used in the Spokane crimes had been left booby-trapped, Baird said. No traps were found.

Authorities have made no arrests in the Spokane crimes.

On April 1, a pipe bomb exploded outside the Valley office of The Spokesman-Review. Minutes later, a nearby U.S. Bank branch was robbed by men wearing camouflage clothes and ski masks who detonated a pipe bomb inside as they left.

On July 12, a pipe bomb exploded at a Planned Parenthood office and the same bank was robbed.

In both sets of crimes, the vans believed to have been used as getaway vehicles were found abandoned and booby-trapped in parking lots in the Spokane Valley. The van in the first robbery had been stolen from Ellensburg, and the second van was stolen in Federal Way, authorities said.

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