Several firebombs set off under SUVs in Cherry Creek in March are “identical” to devices used by an extremist group known as the Animal Liberation Front and described on its website, according to Denver investigators.
Leif Skulborstad, a Denver Fire Department investigator, said in a search warrant affidavit that devices made with identical materials and assembly methods were used by ALF activists in the Netherlands to torch meat trucks.
Authorities accuse Grant Barnes, 24, of attempting to set off firebombs under seven sport utility vehicles over four days in March. Seven more devices were found in Barnes’ car. No one was hurt in the attacks, in which two vehicles had heavy fire damage, but other vehicles did not burn.
Barnes was arrested March 22 after Denver police launched a “saturation patrol” in the neighborhood where several firebombs were left. He has been charged with 15 felony counts, including six counts of using explosives to commit a felony and two counts of second-degree arson.
Denver investigators have received permission to search a computer found in Barnes’ car. They believe it could show which websites Barnes visited and whether he acted in “collaboration with members of an arson/terrorist organization.”
Authorities cited no evidence that Barnes coordinated his activities with any outside group or had any accomplices in the firebombing.
KCNC-Channel 4 reported over the weekend that investigators wanted to search Barnes’ computer for any evidence of links to ecoterror groups.
Phil Cherner, Barnes’ lawyer, had no comment Monday on the matter and said he had not seen the latest search warrant affidavit.
Skulborstad said Fire Department investigators and a Denver-based agent of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had never before seen the type of devices used in the Denver arsons. But he said Internet searches located the exact devices and how to construct them on an ALF website titled “Arson-Around with Auntie ALF.”
Capt. Tony Berumen, head of the Denver Fire Department’s Fire Prevention and Investigation Division, said Monday that the ATF is assisting in the investigation.
At one of the Denver arson sites, someone wrote the letters ELF (often used to refer to the extremist Earth Liberation Front) on a Hummer H2 hours after one of the devices went off. At the time, Skulborstad noted that ELF was written at only one of the arson sites and probably after fire investigators left the scene.
In the latest affidavit, Skulborstad said that ELF and ALF are interrelated organizations and “both … use arson and incendiary devices as a terrorist tactic.”
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
