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**dixiechick** · 10-17-2008, 12:29 PM

Re: An attorney's office was just bombed this morning

Ok, this is only about 5 miles from our plant.

**NRA CHICK** · 10-17-2008, 01:40 PM

Re: An attorney's office was just bombed this morning

That is really scary.

**Stout1** · 10-17-2008, 01:49 PM

Re: An attorney's office was just bombed this morning

We had one bombed in STL yesterday.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/laworder/story/3C78B4C1F6395291862574E4005A77FB?OpenDocument

CLAYTON -- A bomb went off this morning next to two high-rise buildings on Carondelet Plaza in downtown Clayton, and residents and workers evacuated immediately.

Clayton Police Chief Thomas Byrne confirmed this afternoon that an "incendiary device" exploded at 11:05 a.m. in the parking garage located between 190 and 150 Carondolet Plaza. A 69-year-old man, who is a resident of 150 Carondolet Plaza "picked up a package next to his car and it (the package) exploded," Byrne said.

The man's injuries are not considered life-threatening, but Byrne did not specifically detail the extent of the man's injuries. He would not release the man's name.

"We don't know who set it there or why it was put there," Byrne said about the bomb. He anticipates the area will be cleared later this afternoon.

Authorities remained on the scene at 2:30 p.m. They are sweeping the building to make sure there is no other incendiary device. Rumors that there is a second bomb are unfounded, Byrne's said.
VIDEO: See KMOV video from Clayton

Byrne declined to comment whether the man who picked up the package was the intended target, but the package was next to the victim's car that was parked in his assigned spot inside the garage.

After reports of the explosion. St. Louis County police officers with dogs went to the building, as did crime scene investigators.

Witnesses said they saw the man. His face was bloody and his hands were blackened by the blast, they say. Workers saw him wheeled away from the structure on a gurney.

Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI were called to assist at the scene, officials said.

Employees began evacuating the office building at 190 Carondolet Plaza about 11:15 a.m. The building is about 16 stories high and home to many law offices. It has a parking garage on three levels. It also appears that nearby buildings at the Plaza in Clayton were evacuated.

Just after the blast, several hundred people milled about outside, at the corner of Hanley and Carondelet, as police swarmed the scene. A few employees said they had heard what may have been an explosion -- and felt the building shake -- a few minutes before they were ordered to evacuate.

"I heard a loud bang and I thought that it came from outside where there is construction going on," said Jeff Dupree, who was working at a law firm on the 11th floor.

Three to five minutes later, the workers were told there may be fire in the building and they should evacuate, Dupree said.

As Dupree was going down the stairs, he saw smoke at a lower-level garage and the building's sprinklers were going off.

At about 11:30 a.m., no smoke was visible to those watching from across the street. The crowd gathering outside was orderly and people were talking on their cell phones, wondering what was going on.

Many in the building work in the law firm of Husch, Blackwell and Sanders, which has floors 6 through 12 in the building.

Heather Garland said that she was working in the first-floor Northern Trust Bank when she heard some sort of explosion. Her office manager went out of the bank to see what was going on. The manager returned and ordered the workers to evacuate, she said.

When Garland got to the front entrance of the building, she saw a man come out of an elevator used to service the parking garage, she said. The man, she said, was bleeding.

"He was very wet and he blood on his head, and he was very red," Garland said. "His hands were bloody and he looked like he was singed."

Garland said the injured man was being helped by another man. The injured man looked "dusty" and was wearing a pair of navy blue trousers and yellow, plaid shirt. He was walking under his own power, but with the help of another man. A security guard and a maintenance worker helped the injured man out of the building, she said. The man appeared to have been in his late 50s or early 60s. She said that she had never seen him before.

Justin Hoagland, an employee of GolfTEC, which occupies the first floor of the building where the explosion occurred, was giving a golf lesson when he heard what he first thought was thunder.

"It was a tremendously loud sound," said Hoagland, 33. "I thought two cars had collided in the garage above us."

GolfTEC is sandwiched between the garage floors at the 190 Carondelet Plaza building, with two floors of garage space above the business, and four floors of garage space below the business, underground.

Hoagland evacuated the building. Minutes later, while standing on the sidewalk, Hoagland saw a man walk out of the building under his own power, with two men in uniform walking beside him.

"He was holding his arms out away from his body. His hands and arms were dripping blood. He had a shocked look on his face."

Hoagland said the man, who looked to be about 60 years old, got into an ambulance which left the scene.

Joe Guffey, an attorney with the firm, said staff was gathering for a "bosses' day" lunch when they heard the boom.

"I heard it and I could feel it," said Guffey, who gathered with workers in the lobby of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, to the west of the Carondelet Plaza Building.

"Years ago, I worked in a building at 100 North Broadway downtown when a transformer blew up in the basement. It was that same kind of feel."

After today's explosion, Guffey said the fire alarms went off, followed by an announcement over the intercom that there was a fire in the building.

Jim Williamson, a supervisor at the law firm, said the evacuation was done calmly down the stairs.

Carondolet Avenue from Bemiston Avenue to Hanley Road remained closed as of 2 p.m. as police and media trucks used it for a staging area.

Among police departments assisting Clayton police at the scene were: St. Louis County, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Olivette, Shrewsbury, Maplewood and Webster Groves.

MetroLink operations were suspended between the Forest Park-DeBaliviere station and the Clayton station while police investigated the blast, said Metro spokeswoman Dianne Williams. Buses are being used to carry passengers between the two stations. The stations were reopened just before 2 p.m.

Phone calls to Husch's Clayton office this afternoon were being routed through an operator in Kansas City. She was telling callers that the law offices would be closed until at least 6 p.m. today because of an explosion in a parking garage.

About 200 of Husch's 675 lawyers work in the offices on Caroldolet Plaza.

Paul Hampel , William C. Lhotka and Ken Leiser of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

**daved150** · 10-17-2008, 01:52 PM

Re: An attorney's office was just bombed this morning

wow!!! no one wants to bomb detroit?

**dixiechick** · 10-17-2008, 02:03 PM

Re: An attorney's office was just bombed this morning

That's crazy...

must be a full moon.

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