Three bombs exploded and two others were detonated by police at homes in and around Grand Junction on Friday morning, triggering a wide-scale dragnet for a “person of interest,” authorities say.
Authorities identified that person as Robert L. Burke, 54, of Grand Junction. They asked residents of Mesa County to be on the lookout for Burke’s maroon 1999 Chevrolet Astro van with Colorado license plate 794CYB.
Burke is a former employee of Serco Group Plc, a company that staffs the tower at Walker Field Airport.
Four of the homes targeted were owned by employees of Serco, which subcontracts with the Federal Aviation Administration to provide air-traffic control at airports across the country, said Stephen Christmas, Serco Inc. vice president of aviation operations.
The company has only five employees who work at the Grand Junction airport, he said.
“It is important for the public not to panic,” said Grand Junction interim Police Chief Bill Gardner. “These are categorically not random crimes. There’s a specific pattern to the crimes and a close association with the victims and the suspect or suspects.”
Gardner suggested there may be more than one bomber. Two of the bombings happened within a minute of each other, and he couldn’t say whether one person could have detonated both.
A quickly assembled task force of more than 50 law enforcement and emergency- preparedness officers including Grand Junction police, Mesa County sheriff’s deputies and Colorado Bureau of Investigation officers searched for the man and warned residents of the danger, said Linda Bowman, spokeswoman for the Grand Junction Police Department.
The devices, strapped on the outside of small trash cans, did not injure anyone but caused $1,000 in damage to one home and smoke damage to two other homes.
The first package exploded at 4:34 a.m., catching the garage door and eaves above the garage on fire at 816 Mazatlan Drive.
The second bomb was discovered by a homeowner at 2256 Knollwood Lane. Bomb-squad detectives detonated the bomb, Bowman said.
At 7:25 a.m., a bomb exploded next to the garage door of a ranch-style home at 2975 Summerbrook Drive. The explosion left burn marks on the outside of the garage door and melted vinyl siding.
The house was empty, and nobody had been living in it for at least three weeks, neighbors said. None of them could remember if the house’s last occupants worked at the airport.
Neighbor Bobby Payton was backing his car out of his garage and leaving for work when the bomb exploded across the street.
“It shot flames to the top of the house,” said Payton, who inspected the remnants of the bomb and described it as a small, metal pail inside a cardboard box. “It wasn’t very loud.”
At 9:42 a.m., a bomb was discovered in the 600 block of Seranade Street. The bomb was also detonated.
A minute later, a bomb exploded at 2344 1/2 Rattlesnake Court. It is unclear how much damage was caused at this home.
Bowman said she could not discuss any possible motive for the explosions or say how the person of interest was identified.
Officers were canvassing Grand Junction for other devices, Bowman said. She said officials did not want to give too much detail about the bombs because there might be others that look different. Residents need to be cautious about any suspicious objects they find near their homes, she said.
“There is no guarantee these are the last ones,” Bowman said.
Christmas initially declined to comment that the bombs were the work of a disgruntled ex- employee.
“I don’t think it is fair for me to get into specifics at this time. They are looking at all those types of situations that may have had an effect,” he told The Associated Press.
Emergency workers did a reverse 911 call to about 150,000 residents in or near the Western Slope city.
Correspondent David Frey and staff writer Manny Gonzales contributed to this report.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
