© APBryce Reed was arrested by federal agents who said he collected materials to make a pipe bomb. While Reed was sentenced earlier this month for charges related to the pipe bomb, the former paramedic was never charged in the West explosion.
A former paramedic in the tiny Texas town where a fertilizer plant explosion killed 15 people was sentenced Wednesday to 21 months in prison after pleading guilty in a pipe bomb case that isn't linked to the blast.
Bryce Reed made himself somewhat of a representative for the town of West shortly after the April 17 blast, speaking on national television and reassuring displaced residents that they were safe. His arrest - on charges of trying to put together chemicals and equipment for a small pipe bomb - confounded those who knew him and raised questions about whether he had anything to do with the explosion.
A federal complaint alleged that after the blast, Reed gave the materials he had collected to a friend, who called authorities after realizing what Reed placed in his possession. Reed would later admit in court documents to searching the Internet last December for "explosives," "explosions," "explosive ingredients" and "instructions for making explosives."
Ultimately, Reed was never charged with any responsibility for the fertilizer explosion, which blew out windows and caved in walls of homes several blocks away.
His arrest came as the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Texas Fire Marshal's Office were nearing a dead end in their effort to identify the blast's cause. The same day he was arrested, the Texas Rangers and the local county sheriff announced they would begin their own criminal investigation.
© Adrees Latif/ReutersObliterated: Investigators stand amid the aftermath of a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant in the town of West.
Neither effort has led to any charges being filed.
It also later came out that Reed had misled people about what he saw the night of the blast and how close he was with one of the first responders who died. Reed was also dismissed by West's EMS service a few days after the explosion.
State and federal authorities in May officially declared the cause of the fire as "undetermined," listing three possible causes: a problem with one of West Fertilizer's electrical systems, a battery-powered golf cart or a criminal act.
Reed's attorney, Jonathan Sibley, has repeatedly called on federal authorities to clear Reed and said Reed never intended to hurt anyone.
"If there was anything out there that anybody had linking Bryce Reed to the West Fertilizer plant ... we would have seen something about that," Sibley said in an October interview. He did not return several messages this week.
© LM Otero/APA smashed car sits in front of an apartment complex destroyed by the explosion.
Comment: In the aftermath of the explosion, while the authorities - local, State and Federal - were more concerned with keeping a tight leash on information emerging from the site, Bryce Reed helped victims of the blast and stepped up as a spokesman for the town, answering media requests from journalists all over the world:
Two days later, Reed was fired from his job, with no reason given. Then a media campaign began insinuating that he was
mentally unstable. Finally, he was handed those ridiculous charges a month after the explosion.
Reed's attorney, Jonathan Sibley, reckons he was set up to shut him up:
DA receives Texas Ranger report on former West paramedic
Waco Tribune, 25 July 2013
[...] Sibley said he thinks federal authorities arrested Reed "in a rush to judgment" to silence him from the prominent role Reed played initially in acting at various venues as a self-appointed spokesman for the city of West and the grieving families of those lost in the blast.
He said he thinks Reed was arrested also because he criticized the multi-agency state and federal investigation into the
explosion.
According to court documents, Reed gave a box to an unwitting Abbott resident that contained a "possible destructive device."
The person called the McLennan County Sheriff's Office, which took possession of a 31/2-inch pipe and a few bags filled with chemicals, court records state.
Reed admitted having the "components of a pipe bomb," court documents say. But Sibley said Reed "vehemently denies the allegations against him."
"He didn't give the box to the guy who gave it to the feds," Sibley said. "I can't even say if there
ever was a box, but this was something that the federal government pinned on him when they were in the middle of the investigation into the explosion and he was the one talking to the media, and the FBI and ATF didn't like that.
"This was a convenient way to rush to judgment and to try to get him out of the way," Sibley said. "I think the investigation will reveal that. I think it is faulty and Mr. Reed is ultimately looking forward to his day in court." [...]
The 'pipe bomb materials' (literally a portion of pipe and a bag of some chemical or other) were in turn given to Reed by his friend and colleague Cyrus Reed (no relation) who was killed in the explosion, and who Bryce Reed gave an eulogy to at his funeral:
The authorities still have no clue what caused the blast... or so they say.
Remember, it was a HUGE explosion:
Fertilizer plant explosion injures dozens in West, near Waco
Dallas News, 17 April 2013
[...] Paul Manigrasso, a Gulf War veteran, felt the blast in Waxahachie.
"Based on my naval experience ... we knew immediately what it was but cannot believe it occurred 40 miles away," he told KWTX-TV.
Andy Bartee of Dallas was driving home from Austin when he stopped at a convenience store about five miles from the explosion. Suddenly the lights went out and the explosion rocked the building.
"You could feel it in your chest and ears," he said. Ceiling tiles fell and pictures on the wall broke.
"It was pretty nuts," he said. "It looked like a mushroom cloud. It looked like an atom bomb had been dropped," Bartee said. "I've never seen or felt anything like that."
Debby Marak said she had seen the plant burning and had driven closer to see what was happening but reversed direction after two boys ran toward her screaming that authorities had told them to flee because the plant was going to explode.
"It was like being in a tornado," Marak said of the blast that erupted as she was driving away. "Stuff was flying everywhere. It blew out my windshield. It was like the whole earth shook."
Perhaps they haven't found the cause because they haven't considered this possibility:
Was the West, Texas Explosion a Meteorite Impact?In the meantime, Reed is a convenient scapegoat. Sure, in sentencing him based on these trumped-up charges they 'clarify' that he wasn't responsible for the blast, but the mere association is enough to seed the idea in people's minds that Reed caused the explosion.
Admitting looking up things on the internet? I do that kind of thing on a regular basis. I mean could that get me into trouble? I was looking up Uranium 235 the other day as I was thinking of adding more to my stash. I've only got about 30 kilos so far and I do keep it in small lots to keep it cool until I want to use it.
Is this some kind of a problem? I mean I don't want to bring the financial system down or anything. The bankers are doing a superb job there without any input from me.
I've got pipes and fuses and electronics of course, but no explosives as the nitro-glycerine doesn't come until tomorrow morning - UPS.
It is amazing what you can buy on line these days.