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Police continue bomb probe in Girard
GIRARD
Girard police still are trying to determine who threw a Molotov cocktail that exploded on South Elruth Avenue shortly after midnight June 10.
“There’s nothing new,” said police Chief Jeff Palmer on Tuesday. “We’re still looking at physical evidence and following up some leads on suspects.”
He said that though there were plenty of people who saw and heard the explosion in the street, there are no witnesses to tell police who made the bomb and who threw it.
Police questioned a 14-year-old boy and his grandmother that night and took two gasoline-soaked socks from their driveway.
The bomb exploded at South Elruth and Wilson avenues about 30 feet away from a 19-year-old man who was standing near his car.
The man told The Vindicator the resulting fire was the size of a car and it shot flames 15 feet into the air. A police report said the bomb was made in a quart jar.
The man had been driving on South Elruth searching for his 17-year-old girlfriend, whom he’d caught up with at the intersection. She was in her car talking to him at the time of the explosion, he said.
He said he’d seen two or three teenage boys standing in the same driveway where police found the socks while he was driving up and down the street, then saw whom he thought might be those same boys go into the woods near the intersection.
Palmer said that he and Mayor Jim Melfi met with several neighbors Friday “and developed a good plan of action to reassure they are safe.” He would not elaborate.
He said neighbors there have been concerned with vandalism on their properties for some time.
He said that if anyone has information that could help police solve the case, call them at 330-545-0211.