Cops respond to bomb scare: No danger reported, man arrested for first-degree rape
Published 6:27 am Friday, July 22, 2016
A report of an alleged rape and false imprisonment in Bogalusa led Wednesday to a bomb scare and a swarm of federal and local law enforcement officials in the 1000 block of Lona Rester Place.
Interim police chief Gene Crosby said Bogalusa police received a call that James B. Carroll Jr., 40, Bogalusa, had allegedly raped and imprisoned a woman. Crosby said Carroll was arrested at his home on Lona Rester Place at 11:43 a.m. and while police were conducting a routine search of the home looking for evidence, they found possible bomb-making materials.
“They were in the house to search for evidence of the rape, and while they were looking around the house, they saw things that could be used to make a bomb,” Crosby said. “That’s when we notified the ATF and the St. Tammany sheriff’s department and prior to that we notified the Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office to go with us over there just for extra officers.”
Crosby explained that the St. Tammany Sheriff’s Office has a bomb squad. Crosby said that Carroll was arrested without incident and the neighborhood was never in any danger.
“There was never a threat to our community,” Crosby said. “It was just materials that were pretty much safe the way it was. There was nothing there that had an explosive component.”
However, Crosby said the ATF (the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) is still investigating the potential bomb components and further charges could be forthcoming.
“We don’t know,” Crosby said. “It just depends on what the ATF tells us. A lot of this stuff could be used for other things, so just because you have it doesn’t mean you were trying to make a bomb.”
Carroll was charged Wednesday with first-degree rape and false imprisonment using dangerous weapons.