Deputies: Man with possible mental illness planted bomb outside local hardware store

PUYALLUP, Wash. -- Police arrested a man with a possible mental illness Saturday evening after a bomb was found maliciously placed outside a local hardware store.

At 8:50 p.m., Pierce County sheriff's deputies received a call that a man sharpening four large knives was acting strangely outside a McClendon's Hardware store in the 11000 block of Canyon Road E in Puyallup. Deputies drove to the hardware store, and allegedly found the man with a 5-inch long screwdriver shaved into a dagger. Police also discovered the man kept a "boomerang looking" knife in his backpack, court documents show.

During a search around the hardware store, a sheriff's sergeant allegedly located a bomb, described as two cylinders about 5 inches long and 2 inches wide. The cylinders had multiple fuses wrapped around them, deputies said. The explosive, made with part of orange drink bottles, was placed under a fence near a potted plant.

Deputies described the placement as in areas with heavy foot traffic.

The Pierce County Sheriff's Department said had the bomb gone off, they would have been "capable of severely injuring or killing a victim 10 to 15 feet away." Another knife was located next to the bomb, police said.

Police said two or three bottles similar to the ones used to make the bomb were found in the man's backpack.

When questioned, the man allegedly told deputies the cylinders were fireworks that had fallen out of his backpack.

The man was arrested for suspicion of second-degree malicious placement of an explosive and dangerous weapons. He was taken to Pierce County Jail. Upon his arrest, he allegedly told deputies he would provide information about other bombs he supposedly placed in locations he did not know.

The suspect's father told deputies his son has mental issues, and sometimes he believes he is a special agent with the military.