Police Search Continues For Bomber Of 3 DC Businesses Rocked By Explosives On Sunday Morning
Washington DC police are trying to track down whomever is responsible for a Sunday morning attack on three businesses that used two explosive devices and one Molotov cocktail, and shared a photo of a suspect and the suspect's vehicle with the public.
Police say the attacks at three different locations all took place in the span of just 15 minutes in the early Sunday-morning hours:
The first target was a Truist Bank branch in the 2300 block of Washington Place, Northeast, with the suspect detonating some type of explosive device on the sidewalk next to the bank's ATM at 4:30 am before fleeing in a car.
Six minutes later, the suspect hit a Nike store in the 700 block of H Street, Northeast, again detonating an explosive and driving off.
At 4:45 am, the suspect hurled a Molotov cocktail through a Safeway store window in the 300 block of 40th Street, North
No casualties were reported, and the timing of the attacks suggest the villain sought to avoid inflicting injuries or deaths. No associated theft was reported. Nearby residents say they were startled awake by the loud explosions.
Loud explosion noise heard at 4:30am here at Rhode Island Row/Ave Metro Stop. Truist bank glass is shattered and a fireman says there was an “incident at the bank” MPD is now blocking off the street @PoPville pic.twitter.com/wA0vPz6YHi
— Amanda Koski (@AJKoski16) July 2, 2023
"BOOM and it woke me up out of my sleep...It shook my living room. It knocked all my security cameras off the wall. It knocked my pictures off the wall. It pretty much rattled me," a man who lives in an apartment above the Truist Bank branch told NBC4 Washington.
Physical damage varied, with the Truist bank appearing to have fared the worst of the three targets. Photos posted to social media suggest the explosive shattered plate glass in a large exterior window, the door, and another window on the other side of the entrance vestibule. The awning was left in tatters, and a drain downspout appears to have been bent out of alignment.
Early Sunday evening, Washington DC police released a photo of the suspect and the suspect's vehicle -- a champagne-colored Acura TL with Maryland license plate 17971CK. They didn't say what, if anything, they'd learned about the license plate or the vehicle it's associated with -- which may not be the one the plate was affixed to during the attack.
While DC police endeavored to describe the vehicle with words, they chose not to do the same for the suspect -- perhaps out of fear of misgendering the bomber or reinforcing other stereotypes. One would think police captured at least a few angles on the individual, but they only shared one -- an over-the-shoulder look in which the suspect's face is hidden from view by a hood.
The race cannot be conclusively determined from the photo: One hand that's visible appears to be dark, but we can't rule out the possibility that the perpetrator wore a glove -- or, worse, dressed in blackhand; if the latter, such an act would likely elicit more condemnation from leftists than the bomb and fire attacks themselves.
In their release about the incident, DC police refer to plural "suspects," but do not definitively declare that more than one person was involved. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and DC police are together offering a $20,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and a conviction.
While observers of current events will find the attacks on a DC bank, shoe store and grocery reminiscent of the rampages taking place across France, there's no hint of a motive yet.
