Thread: Act of domestic terrorism on Coast Guard Station Grand Haven, Mich.

Police: Act of domestic terrorism on Coast Guard Station Grand Haven

POSTED 4:59 PM, FEBRUARY 8, 2015, BY ANN MARIE LAFLAMME, UPDATED AT 05:08PM, FEBRUARY 8, 2015



GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — A small West Michigan community — proudly known as “Coast Guard City USA” and home of the nationally-recognized Coast Guard Festival — is now the victim of what police are calling an act of domestic terrorism.

It all started early Sunday morning, when police say a 34-year-old Michigan man drove a silver Dodge Ram pickup into Coast Guard Station Grand Haven, shredding the metal fence protecting the men and women inside.

“A male suspect crashed his truck through the security gate, entered the compound, entered the building and — once inside — attacked Coast Guard personnel,” Grand Haven Public Safety Director Jeff Hawke said.

Police say those members of the Coast Guard subdued the suspect and he was taken into custody — where the suspect’s threat continued, claiming there was a bomb in his truck.

“We immediately closed Harbor Drive and the boardwalk to pedestrian traffic — there’s a condominium development situated across the street,” Hawke said.

Residents at Sandy Piper Condominiums were told to take shelter in place as the Michigan State Police Bomb Squad and their robot investigated the scene.

They emptied the trucks’ contents, before giving the community an all-clear.

“We’re investigating this — as we have to — as an act of domestic terrorism,” Hawke said. “We’re unsure of the suspect’s motives.

We’re not sure if he was acting alone or in concert with someone else.”

The FBI says their investigation has not revealed a link to terrorism, as more questions surface after an attack that’s affecting the entire community.

Leif VanHorssen is one of those people living nearby.

“We’re taking that probably pretty personal here,” he said, “because yeah, we do feel the Coast Guard is part of us and we’re part of them.”

Police say the suspect is in custody in Grand Haven awaiting a formal arraignment.

http://fox17online.com/2015/02/08/po...n-grand-haven/

Suspect in Grand Haven Coast Guard attack ID’d

By 24 Hour News 8 web staff
Published: February 8, 2015, 8:48 am Updated: February 9, 2015, 12:51 pm

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WOOD) — A man claimed he had a bomb, crashed a pickup truck through the gate of the U.S. Coast Guard facility in Grand Haven and then assaulted a Coast Guard member early Sunday morning, authorities say.

The same suspect has been linked to a suspicious barn fire in Oceana County’s Golden Township that broke out around 4 a.m. Sunday.

Target 8 investigators identified the suspect in the fire as 34-year-old Matthew Krueger of Michigan which the Oceana County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed. Authorities have said he is the same suspect in the Grand Haven incident and is also listed in the Ottawa County Jail.

Just after 6 a.m., a man driving a Dodge Ram drove into the gate at the Coast Guard station, which is located at 601 S. Harbor Drive just east of the lakeshore, Grand Haven Public Safety Director Jeff Hawke said. He then broke into the station and assaulted a Coast Guardsman, who suffered minor injuries.

Members of the Coast Guard were able to contain the man until Grand Haven Public Safety officers arrived and arrested him, according to Hawke.

Bob Coleman, who has lived at a condominium across the street from the Coast Guard station for eight years, was able to see everything from his window.

“They had him on the ground. They had handcuffs on him, and then I saw one of the policemen with what I refer to as a SWAT gun,” Coleman said. “I was sitting there and I went, ‘Uh-oh.

Something isn’t right here.'”

The suspect called the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office before the crash, saying he was “going to blow up the Grand Haven station,” police said. Hawke said the call came in at 6:07 a.m. and officers arrived at the Coast Guard station within three minutes, by which time the truck had already charged the gate.

Because of the bomb threat, the Coast Guard station was evacuated and residents of the nearby Sandpiper Condos, where Coleman lives, were ordered to shelter in place. The evacuation and shelter-in-place orders were lifted after a Michigan State Police Bomb Squad determined there was no bomb.

“Grand Haven is extremely safe,” Hawke said. “This is an isolated — certainly extraordinary — isolated incident.”

Police initially investigated the incident is as an “act of domestic terrorism” because it was an attack on a federal building. However, no links to terrorism or a terrorist organization have been found, Hawke said.

“The suspect is not from Grand Haven. We are unsure, unclear on whether he is acting alone,” Hawke said.

Further details about the suspect’s identity were not released and Hawke said his motive was still being investigated.










Hawke also confirmed that the suspect has been linked to a suspicious fire in Oceana County’s Golden Township that broke out around 4 a.m. Sunday. That fire happened at a hobby barn that had been fixed up by a previous owner to look like an old-style gas station. Neighbors say the barn, which changed ownership about a year ago, was rarely occupied.

Oceana County Undersheriff Tim Priese said in a Sunday night email to 24 Hour News 8 that no one had been arrested or arraigned in the arson and therefore declined to provide further details about a suspect, but did say the suspect in the Grand Haven incident is also the suspect in the fire.

Oceana County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Craig Mast said the suspect had recently been staying in Oceana County, but is not believed to have been lived there long.






The owner of the property, who 24 Hour News 8 learned lives in Illinois and is believed to be a relative of the suspect, declined comment and hung up when 24 Hour News 8 called seeking comment on Sunday afternoon.

“More information gathering, more interviews that we’re going to have to do to put the whole picture together. We’re working with the sheriff’s department in Oceana County on that incident up there, so it’s going to be a lot of coordination and making sure that we have all the facts to present the case,” Hawke said.

Police have so far not found any connection to any other incidents.

The suspect was held at the Grand Haven police station for hours as he was questioned and then taken to the Ottawa County Jail. He is expected to be in court Monday, and could face both state felony and federal charges because the Coast Guard station is federal property.

The truck involved in the incident has an Illinois license plate. It’s unclear who the truck belongs to.

The FBI, the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco and Michigan State Police also responded to the Coast Guard station after the incident.

“I’m glad they didn’t find a bomb and everything but let me tell you, there were a lot of people here,” Coleman, the neighbor who witnessed the incident, said.

http://woodtv.com/2015/02/08/attack-...n-grand-haven/