Numerous suspected homemade explosive devices discovered by police Friday night in the house of an Oxford High student led to the school’s evacuation Monday morning.
After thoroughly searching OHS, five bomb-sniffing dogs from the Oakland and Macomb county sheriff’s departments along with the Sterling Heights and Southfield police departments found no trace of explosives, nothing.
‘They don’t have any specific information that there were any explosives at the high school, but we sent the bomb dogs there just to be safe,? said Oakland County Undersheriff Michael McCabe.
Dogs entered the school around 10:30 a.m. after all the students were sent home for the day. The ‘all clear? was given to Superintendent Virginia Brennan-Kyro at 1 p.m.
Brennan-Kyro described the evacuation and search as a ‘purely precautionary measure? given the fact that, according to sheriff’s officials 18 suspected improvised explosive devices were found in the 78 Pontiac St. home of a 16-year-old male OHS sophomore.
The suspected explosive devices are currently being analyzed by Michigan State Police crime lab.
McCabe described 16 of the devices as an unidentified substance wrapped in black tape with wicks sticking in them. The other two were shotgun shells wrapped in black tape with an unidentified substance between the tape and shells. They too had wicks in them.
‘Everything was unusual-looking,? said Deborah Carley, chief deputy prosecuting attorney for Oakland County. ‘It was all homemade and not the kind of thing we usually see.?
‘There was like a little lab down there,? said Carley of the basement where the devices were recovered.
Three one-quart Mason jars containing a ‘napalm-like substance? were also found in a backyard shed at the Pontiac St. home, according to Fire Chief Jack LeRoy.
Members of the North Oakland County HAZMAT Team, sheriff’s Fire Investigation Unit and Oxford Fire Department took the substance to an abandoned area in the township and ignited it to dispose of it safely, LeRoy said. He noted the substance was ‘consistent with napalm? and ‘burned like napalm? for about 20 minutes, giving off a ‘black, sooty smoke.?
A USB flash drive (a portable data storage device that plugs into a computer) allegedly belonging to the village teen, was found in a school computer by another student and turned over to the police by high school officials. The drive ‘contained information and pictures of explosives and chemicals used to make explosive devices,? according to McCabe.
When sheriff’s investigators decided to search the village teen’s home Friday night, McCabe said, ‘A bomb dog determined there were some sort of explosives there.?
Oxford Village Police, Michigan State Police Bomb Squad and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were called to the scene and are working in conjunction with the sheriff’s department on the investigation.
Besides suspected explosives, investigators also confiscated a home computer and items stolen from the school district’s maintenance garage May 6.
The student, an Oxford Village resident, has been charged as a juvenile with arson of real property and breaking and entering of a building with intent, both felonies. Because he has been charged as a juvenile it’s the Leader’s policy to not publish his name.
Those three charges stem from the May 14 break-in and arson at the school district’s maintenance garage (107 Pontiac St.), which caused an estimated $250,000 in damage. The suspect allegedly doused a pile of school building blueprints with gasoline and lit it on fire.
The village teen is also charged with two felony counts of breaking and entering of a building with intent stemming from the April 21 unlawful entry at the Oxford Public Library (530 Pontiac St.) and May 6 break-in at the school district maintenance garage.
The library incident involved suspects unlawfully entering the building through a rooftop skylight and climbing down a 30-foot rope leading to the teen department. The May 6 and 14 break-ins at the garage involved the theft of school keys, school building blueprints (including those for OHS) , bolt cutters, hand tools and scanner-type radios, all of which were recovered by police from the village teen’s home.
Suspended from school, the village teen is currently being lodged at Oakland County Children’s Village, a juvenile detention facility in Pontiac.
Although he’s not been charged with it, village police said the Pontiac St. teen is suspected of shooting arrows into the backyards of neighboring residents on Moyer and Hovey streets.
Despite the crimes he’s alleged to have committed, McCabe reiterated there were ‘no specific threats against anybody or anything? that prompted the OHS search.
‘He didn’t threaten to blow up the high school or anything like that,? McCabe said. ‘We didn’t have any specific information that there was anything at the high school. But after consulting with the principal and people from the school district, everybody felt it was in everybody’s best interest to be safe.?
Another 16-year-old male OHS sophomore, who resides in Oxford Township, was also charged as a juvenile with the library break-in, but not with any crimes related the school district’s maintenance garage.
As of now, there’s no evidence to connect the township teen with any crimes involving the maintenance garage, according to Sheriff’s Lt. Tom Parker, commander of the Oxford Twp. substation.
The township teen was released to the custody of his parents and suspended from school.
McCabe described the village teen as the ‘main player? in this situation and the township teen as merely a ‘tagalong.?
While both teens have been charged as juveniles, the undersheriff said that too could change.
‘Right now, they’re charged as juveniles, but that doesn’t mean the prosecutor can’t now charge them as adults as this case goes on,? McCabe said. ‘I think this was just to get them into the system.?
‘There’s going to be more charges coming out of this,? said the undersheriff, referring to the suspected explosive devices.
Prosecutor Carley said a ‘traditional waiver? for both suspects was filed Tuesday with the juvenile court. This is basically a request asking the court to waive their juvenile status and allow them to be charged as adults.
‘A lot really depends on which judge you get,? said Carley when asked the likelihood of the waiver being approved. ‘When you’re talking about trying juveniles as adults, the court’s very divided. Some judges never treat them as adults, some do.?
As for why the prosecutor’s office wishes to charge them as adults, Carley said, ‘There’s a couple of reasons.?
‘What we look at first is their age and they’re 16?,? she said. ‘The age for being an adult in Michigan is 17, so you’re very close to the age of being charged as an adult anyway. It also is so close to that age that the availability of juvenile services really diminishes.?
‘The other thing that we looked at that was very important is the severity of the crime and the situation of the juvenile,? Carley explained referring to the village teen. ‘Obviously, in this case it was very serious. We’re talking about $250,000 in damage just on the arson alone as well as all the accompanying facts which certainly do not show a great likelihood of rehabilitation of all the other problems the defendant has such as the possession of the explosive devices.?
Although a waiver was filed to charge the township teen as an adult too, Carley noted, ‘We’re actually not certain what we’re ultimately going to do with him.?
Carley said the traditional waiver was filed as a precaution because the prosecutor’s office only has a ‘limited time? to file such a waiver, but ‘you can drop it at any time.?
‘There’s other things they’re still investigating which make us question whether or not he should be treated as a juvenile or an adult,? Carley said.
If the juvenile court decides to charge the Oxford teens as adults, the Leader will publish their names and mugshots at that time.