Suspects Held In Wenatchee Pipe Bomb Scare Three Teenagers Arrested By Police In Separate Cases

Three teenagers are in jail facing bomb charges after a whirlwind in vestigation in Wenatchee broke separate cases involving four pipe bombs, authorities say.

David I. Egle, an 18-year-old Ukrainian immigrant, is charged federally with building pipe bombs that were placed in the federal building and at a medical clinic in Wenatchee.

Egle is charged with using a weapon of mass destruction against property owned by the U.S. government and attempted bombing of a clinic involved in interstate commerce.

He is not talking to authorities, and investigators say they don’t have any idea about his motive.

“We don’t know what he was up to, but he’s definitely the guy,” one investigator said.

Court documents detailing four searches - including one at Egle’s home - are sealed from public inspection.

Investigators said other arrests may occur.

Egle is not a U.S. citizen and is living in this country under religious refugee status, authorities say.

In an unrelated case, two other teenage boys, one of them 17, were arrested Saturday on state bomb charges and are being held in the Chelan County Juvenile Detention Center.

They are charged with building two plastic PVC pipe bombs in Wenatchee. One of those pipe bombs exploded harmlessly June 16 in the driveway of a Wenatchee area orchardist. The second pipe bomb was found later that day on a truck parked in Wenatchee.

“There is no link between these two cases that we know about,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Earl Hicks.

The federal prosecutor and two dozen FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents from Seattle and Spokane descended on Wenatchee after an elaborately built bomb was found last Wednesday in the federal building.

The following day, a device made to look like a bomb was found at Wenatchee Valley College. That device has not been linked to a suspect.

Federal agents worked around the clock with Chelan County sheriff’s deputies and police from Wenatchee and East Wenatchee.

A command post was set up and investigators were paired in federal-local teams. Surveillance teams watched potential suspects, while other investigators checked stores selling gun powder.

“We committed the resources, put all the leads together, and wham, we had these arrests,” Hicks said.

Egle was arrested Sunday evening in Wenatchee after being stopped in a car that was speeding at an estimated 70 mph through a residential neighborhood. A juvenile who was driving the car was not arrested.

Hicks said Egle was involved in attempts to elude undercover detectives and engaged in “counter-surveillance” of those officers.

He became a suspect in the federal building investigation after a Wenatchee-area retailer who sells gun powder called a tip into authorities.

The device, hidden in a shoe box, was rigged to an electronic triggering device. It was left on a mezzanine level of the federal building, where remodeling is under way.

The pipe bomb, which didn’t explode, was hooked to a 32-ounce container of acetone, Hicks said.

“It was a very dangerous device,” that could have caused death or serious injury, Hicks said.

If convicted, Egle faces deportation or the possibility of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Egle, who works for a janitorial service, has lived in East Wenatchee with his mother, niece and sister, the court was told.

He emigrated from the former republic of the Soviet Union a year ago and was granted religious refugee status, Hicks said.

At the Monday hearing, Egle wore sandals, cut-off shorts and a black T-shirt. He gazed around the federal courtroom and appeared somewhat bewildered by the surroundings. He was told about the proceeding by a Russian interpreter.

The judge then asked Egle whether he had used drugs or alcohol in the past three days. He said no.

Egle was ordered detained without bond until federal investigators can present evidence against him at a probable cause hearing scheduled for Thursday.