Bomb Explosions At School Linked To Dundalk Firefighter: Police

DUNDALK, MD — A volunteer firefighter is facing arson, trespassing and other charges filed by Baltimore County police after the department's bomb squad found the remains of devices that had exploded behind an elementary school in Dundalk last weekend. The police arrested Anthony Dale Reed, 20, at about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at his home in the 500 block of 48th Street in Dundalk, according to a police report.

• manufacture/possess/distribute a destructive device;
• possession of explosive/incendiary material with intent to create a destructive device;
• second-degree malicious burning;
• trespassing on school grounds;
• threat of arson.

The case began when officers responded shortly after midnight Saturday to the report of an explosion at Berkshire Elementary School at 7431 Poplar Ave., the police said in a statement.

Members of the Police Department's Hazardous Devices Team also went to the scene and found evidence of a "small package explosion" on a bench behind the school, the police said.

They obtained surveillance video of the incident that showed "a suspect placing a box on the bench, igniting the box and running away," the police said.

Two Other Incidents

The police then received calls late Monday night from residents living near the school, saying they heard shots fired or an explosion. Police detectives found a charred area and debris near a tree behind Berkshire Elementary at about 11:38 p.m.

At that time, an officer searching the area encountered a "suspicious subject" in an alley behind the school, identifying him as Reed, the police said.

Reed was carrying a scanner and identified himself as a volunteer firefighter, the police said. He was questioned and released.

Bomb technicians and detectives from the department's Arson Investigation Team then identified the individual seen on the school's surveillance system as Anthony Reed.

In addition, the police said they have identified Reed as the caller who made a bomb threat last week.

The caller last Thursday "threatened to activate a destructive device in the Berkshire community," the police said. No explosive device was found in that incident.

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Images: Above, Patch file; below, Anthony Dale Reed (Baltimore County PD)