FBI releases sketch of 'person of interest' in Colorado NAACP bombing

[January 10, 2015]  By Keith Coffman
 
 DENVER (Reuters) - The FBI released a sketch on Friday of a man possibly linked to a homemade bomb that exploded behind NAACP offices in central Colorado earlier this week, but investigators would not speculate on a motive for the blast.

On Tuesday, an improvised explosive device detonated against an exterior wall of a building that houses offices of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Colorado Springs, about 70 miles south of Denver.

FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Thomas Ravenelle told reporters on Friday the composite drawing is based on eyewitnesses who saw a balding white man in his 40s carrying something in an alley behind the building, and then walking away empty-handed.

Ravenelle said the agency was investigating all possibilities, but that he was “not naive” about where the bomb was set off.

“I know what the NAACP means to some extremists in this country,” he said.

The man was driving a dirty white, older model pickup truck with missing or hidden license plates, according to witness accounts.

A gasoline canister placed next to the explosive failed to detonate, and no one was injured in the blast, which did “minimal surface charring” to the building that also houses a hair salon.

The bomb was crudely made, Ravenelle said, but he declined to provide further details about the device out of concern that copycats might compromise the ongoing probe.

It is now being tested for any evidence that might lead to a suspect. Ravenelle said until further leads develop, “We’re not going to call it terrorism and we’re not going to call it a hate crime. It’s a bombing investigation.”

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Eric Beech)

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