Texas launches criminal probe into plant explosion

[Samstwitch]

Texas launches criminal probe into plant explosion

WACO, Texas (AP) — Texas law enforcement officials on Friday launched a criminal investigation into the massive fertilizer plant explosion that killed 14 people last month, after weeks of largely treating the blast as an industrial accident.

The announcement came the same day that a paramedic who helped to evacuate residents the night of the explosion was arrested on a charge of possessing a destructive device, though it is not clear whether the charge is related to the April 17 blast at West Fertilizer Co.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said in a Friday statement that the agency had instructed the Texas Rangers and the McLennan County Sheriff's Department to conduct a criminal probe into the explosion.

"This disaster has severely impacted the community of West, and we want to ensure that no stone goes unturned and that all the facts related to this incident are uncovered," DPS Director Steven McCraw said.

McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara said residents "must have confidence that this incident has been looked at from every angle and professionally handled — they deserve nothing less."

The statement did not detail any further reasons for the criminal investigation and said no additional information would be released.

Paramedic Bryce Reed, meanwhile, was in federal custody following his arrest on the charge of possessing a destructive device. Reed was booked into the McLennan County Jail at 2:40 a.m. and released before 8 a.m. to agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to jail booking clerk Brandy Gann.

Reed made an initial appearance in federal court in Waco on Friday, but did not enter a plea. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Frazier said he would not release further details until court documents were unsealed sometime later in the day.

Officials have largely treated the explosion as an industrial accident, though investigators still searching for the cause of a fire that preceded the blast have said they would treat the area as a crime scene until all possibilities were considered. Authorities have focused on ammonium nitrate, a chemical commonly used as a fertilizer, but that also can be explosive in the right conditions, as the cause of the explosion.

Reed was one of several paramedics who helped evacuate residents from nearby apartments after the fire erupted and shortly before the explosion. He has spoken to The Associated Press extensively, and said he was devastated by the explosion, which killed one of his closest friends, Cyrus Reed. The two are not related.

Bryce Reed's wife, Brittany Reed, declined to comment early Friday.

"I can't. No comment, no comment no comment right now," she said before hanging up the phone.

 

[Samstwitch]

Paramedic arrested, link to criminal probe of Texas plant blast unclear

DALLAS (Reuters) - A paramedic in West, Texas, has been arrested for possession of an explosive device, a federal official said on Friday, but it was not clear whether there was a connection to a deadly explosion last month at a fertilizer plant in the town.

Texas officials also announced on Friday that they had opened a criminal investigation into the April 17 explosion that killed 14 people and injured about 200 others. They made no mention of an arrest.

U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokeswoman Franceska Perot identified the man arrested as Bryce Reed.

A source familiar with the matter said it was not clear that Reed's arrest was linked to the blast at West Fertilizer Co.

"I don't know that they're making that connection," said the source, who asked not to be identified because she was not authorized to speak to the news media.

An employee at McLennan County Jail, who also asked not to be identified, said Reed, 31, was brought to the jail at 2 a.m. and handed over to federal agents at 8 a.m.

A call to Reed's cell phone went unanswered on Friday and Reed's wife, Brittany, said in a text message that she could not comment.

The state fire marshal's office has said that ammonium nitrate stored at the plant detonated in the explosion but that the cause of the fire and blast were still being investigated.

"This disaster has severely impacted the community of West, and we want to ensure that no stone goes unturned and that all the facts related to this incident are uncovered," Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said in a statement announcing that the Texas Rangers and McLennan County Sheriff's office would join in a criminal investigation.

SURVIVOR OF BLAST

Bryce Reed told Reuters last month that he had been a paramedic for 13 years and that he had worked in combat zones overseas as a contract paramedic.

Bryce and Brittany Reed said that they were listening to music at their home when they heard the town's siren and jumped into their truck to warn people nearby.

"Get your kids and go!" the couple said they yelled at residents of an apartment complex near the plant. They said they were about 50 to 75 yards from the plant when the blast rocked their vehicle.

The force of the blast also destroyed their home, blowing the doors off and filling their two-year-old daughter's bedroom with shards of glass, Bryce Reed said.

"Had she been in there, she'd be dead," he said. "We've lost everything. But my family is alive and that's enough for me."

He also said that he lost his best friend, volunteer firefighter Cyrus Reed, in the blast. The two were not related, but were so close they considered each other brothers, Bryce Reed said at the time.

"There's no words to convey the magnitude of this incident," Reed said last month.

Earlier this week, Bryce Reed wrote on his Facebook page that he was "incredibly emotional" and felt he was being attacked by people who had suggested he was profiting from his efforts to honor the fallen firefighters and emergency medical service workers through a number of media interviews he had given since the blast.

"Integrity is so hard, especially when it is attacked. I am so sick of being strong. I am so sick of crying. You try to do the right thing, and get kicked for it," he wrote in a post on Monday. "I am not crazy, I'm lost."