A Washington State Patrol bomb technician responded to the state Department of Corrections office at the Lewis County Mall on Wednesday after community corrections officers confiscated what they thought to be fireworks but were later found to be pipe bombs from a 19-year-old man.
Two community corrections officers reportedly checked on the male for violation of his community custody around midday on Wednesday, July 12, and confiscated “what they originally thought were fireworks,” Department of Corrections Communications Director Christ Wright told a Chronicle reporter on Thursday.
The officers reportedly brought the confiscated items back to the Department of Corrections office at the Lewis County Mall before examining them closely, according to the Department of Corrections. Upon examining the confiscated objects, the officers “quickly realized they were possibly actual pipe bombs,” Wright said Thursday.
The Department of Corrections called in the Washington State Patrol Bomb Squad at about 1 p.m. on Wednesday, according to Wright, who stated “everything was diffused” and there was “no threat to community safety.”
The 19-year-old was arrested and booked into the Chehalis Tribal Jail just before 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday for violation of community custody, according to jail records.
