August 11, 2004
ESTES THOMPSON
Associated Press
RALEIGH - A teenager charged with possessing two dozen pipe bombs didn't appear to have any targets or a plan of action when he was arrested after fleeing an accident scene, police said Tuesday.
Jarrett William Brown, 17, was arrested Monday after police found six bombs in a car he was driving and more bombs and explosive-making chemicals in his home, authorities said.
"We have no information that anything was specifically targeted," said Lt. Tony Godwin of the Cary Police Department. "That's what we're trying to find out. Typically, people don't drive around with bombs."
Investigators said Brown was cooperating with them.
Sgt. Allan Murray said "there's no evidence so far of this guy planning on killing anybody or blowing up anything."
Police first discovered the explosives while investigating a hit-and-run accident Monday afternoon in Cary. The 17-year-old boy later led investigators to the additional bombs and substances in his home in Fuquay-Varina, according to Cary authorities.
The explosives prompted police to evacuate a day care center and dentist office, and later several houses around Brown's home. Brown's mother, Connie, apologized to neighbors with children who were evacuated Monday night as they prepared for the opening day of school. Connie Brown is a teacher's aide.
Brown is charged with 24 counts of possession of weapons of mass destruction, police said. Brown, a senior at Apex High School, also is charged with hit and run.
At a brief afternoon hearing, a judge ordered the teen to remain in jail under $100,000 bond and appointed a lawyer after Brown said he couldn't afford one.
Brown's father, 48-year-old electrician Greg Brown, spoke in defense of his son, both to the judge and to reporters outside the high-security jail courtroom.
"He excels in chemistry and this has probably led to him doing what he has done," Greg Brown said.
Brown said his son, the youngest of two, scored 1,460 out of 1,600 on a college entrance exam and didn't smoke or drink or hang around with those who did.
The father said his son probably drove away after hitting a parked car because he knew the family's car insurance was being canceled and he was nervous about a claim being filed.
"I know he had no intention of setting those things off," Brown said of the bombs. "He's never been in trouble before for anything. We're all in shock. We've never had any trouble in our family. This is all new to us."
Pipe bombs are usually made of a metal pipe with screw-on caps and are filled with gunpowder or some other explosive material. When detonated, shrapnel from the exploding pipe can fly and injure people within several yards in all directions.
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