Campbell County authorities arrested a Liberty University student for having several homemade bombs in his car.
The student, 19-year-old Mark D. Uhl of Amissville, Va., reportedly told authorities that he was making the bombs to stop protesters from disrupting the funeral service. The devices were made of a combination of gasoline and detergent, a law enforcement official told ABC News' Pierre Thomas. They were "slow burn," according to the official, and would not have been very destructive.
"There were indications that there were others involved in the manufacturing of these devices and we are still investigating these individuals with the assistance of ATF [Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms], Virginia State Police and FBI. At this time it is not believed that these devices were going to be used to interrupt the funeral services at Liberty University," the Campbell County Sheriff's Office said in a release.
Three other suspects are being sought, one of whom is a soldier from Fort Benning, Ga., and another is a high school student. No information was available on the third suspect.
Although, given that around half a dozen of these protesters were from Fred Phelps' church, it might've been nice if the two of these groups just picked each other off.
[Edit] Via NonyNony in the comments at Pharyngula, we get this additional tidbit:
"Preliminary investigations reveal that he may have been aware of people that were protesting Dr. Falwell's funeral," [Campbell County Sheriff Terry] Gaddy said when asked about Uhl's motive.
The Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church, which claimed Falwell was sympathetic of homosexuals, protested across the street from the funeral without incident.
Investigators determined that Uhl had issues with that group, Gaddy said.
Jesse Benson, 19, of Zanesville, Ohio, said he roomed with Uhl as freshmen this year and both shared the view that the Westboro group is a "sorry, disgraceful bunch of people," but that he was certain Uhl would never have done anything to harm them.
So maybe... just maybe....
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