An hour before the beginning of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade in Spokane, Washington, sharp-eyed city employees spotted an abandoned backpack sitting along the parade route. As it turns out, those employees stopped a potentially deadly terrorist situation. Someone had left a functioning bomb in a Swiss Army backpack along the route of Spokane’s MLK Day parade. The city employees alerted the police department, who were able to disarm the bomb without any difficulty.
“The confluence of the holiday, the march and the device is inescapable, but we are not at the point where we can draw any particular motive,” cautions Frank Harrill, special agent in charge of the Spokane FBI office. “The potential for injury and death were clearly present.”
The area around Spokane is a hotbed for racist activity, according to the FBI. The Aryan Nation had their headquarters in nearby northern Idaho, and for years there have been isolated incidents of racism in the region, though never something to this extent. The FBI is investigating the bombing attempt.
Tags: Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade, Spokane, Washington, Swiss Army backpack, backpack bomb left at Spokane Martin Luther King parade, bombing attempt, Frank Harrill, FBI, FBI investigating racially-motivated bombing at MLK Day parade, bombing attempt at MLK parade, terrorism