City police seized three pipe bombs and a small arsenal of weapons late Monday from a 46-year-old man who allegedly planned to blow up the third floor of City Hall.
Wayne Garrett, described by neighbors as an unemployed crane operator who had a fascination with weapons, was being held without bond in the City Jail Tuesday night, charged with possession and manufacture of firebombs.
He declined to speak with a reporter.
Garrett was arrested at his apartment in the 7400 block of River Road about 11 p.m. Monday after a search by police and the fire marshal, who said they acted on a tip from an informant.
What they found was a small arsenal: 13 firearms, an armor-piercing, disposable rocket launcher, three pipe bombs and explosive equipment to manufacture more bombs.
City authorities called in the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which seized the guns and rocket launcher.
The Fire Department is holding the explosives, each of which is powerful enough to destroy a medium-sized room or a vehicle, said spokeswoman Lynn James .
Each of the three pipe bombs had a different name written on it – Jay, James and Roy – according to a search inventory filed with Newport News Circuit Court.
An affidavit filed with the court said the informant told police Garrett had said “he was going to blow up the third floor of City Hall.”
Investigators said they were puzzled by the names on the bombs, and did not understand why he would target the third floor of City Hall, which houses the development office and the city auditor.
“We have no idea how or if the names are related to anyone. He could have named his bombs like people name pets,” James added.
Garrett was convicted May 1 of unlawful wounding, after attacking a man with a machete. He was to be sentenced July 19, said Commonwealth’s Attorney David Olson. Police said the victim suffered a wound to the hand in the machete attack.
James said investigators in the explosives and guns case surmise that Garrett planned to use the bombs as revenge for his conviction and upcoming sentencing.
Gene Reagan, resident in charge of the Norfolk office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said he is investigating Garrett and the weapons, because federal law prohibits a felon from possessing firearms.
Garrett lived on the second floor of the River Drive Apartments, a cluster of older, two-story brick buildings between 73rd and 74th streets.
The bedroom of his modest apartment Tuesday night was decorated with three empty gun racks and a photograph of Garrett in a black military uniform, standing before a red Swastika.
A commemorative plate bearing a picture of Nazi general Hans Ulrich Rudel, and words that said, in German, “Eagle of the Eastern Front,” hung in Garrett’s living room. So did a poster of Confederate generals, a Confederate flag and pictures of Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe.
A copy of Soldier of Fortune Magazine lay on top of a phone book.
His collection of cassette tapes included a tape of German marching and war songs and a compilation of songs by rock ‘n’ roller Chuck Berry. A series of three-inch-long bullets were arrayed on a small shelf.
Seven toy cannons were lined up on the coffee table, in front of three decoy ducks.
His refrigerator was covered with “smiling face” stickers.
Fire Investigator M.F. Champ said the Fire Department received two tips in the past 18 months about Garrett’s intentions to make a bomb.
Champ said the first one came from Warren Pless, the man Garrett cut with the machete, but “until Monday night, we really had no reason to get a search warrant,” Champ said.
Jim Campbell, a cook in the Navy, said he lived in an apartment below Garrett. Campbell talked about his former neighbor at the 7-Eleven near the apartment building, where Garrett bought beer.
“He was quiet, kept to himself. I remember his mother used to visit him almost daily,” Campbell said.
“I never had a cross word with him and I lived below him for a year,” he said. Campbell and others who knew Garrett said they thought he had worked as a crane operator but, had been out of work for several months on disability.
WEAPONS SEIZED
In addition to the three pipe bombs, city fire officials and federal agents said they also seized the following items in Wayne Garrett’s apartment:
*Six pieces of pipe, each with a hole drilled for a fuse.
*Three Proteus III hand-held parachute flares.
*One tear-gas cannister.
*One self-contained disposable rocket launcher.
*Materials used for explosives, including a 1-pound can of smokeless powder, a bag of fuse material and tools.
*Two inert grenades.
*$1,460 in cash and $16,000 in series EE U.S. Savings bonds.
*Stevens model 311 12-gauge shotgun.
*Stevens model 511 12-gauge shotgun.
*Wards Western Field 12-gauge shotgun.
*Winchester model 1894 30-30 rifle.
*Smith and Wesson .44-caliber Magnum.
*Ruger Mini 14 .223-caliber semiautomatic rifle.
*Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum model 586.
*Mossberg 500 12-gauge shotgun.
*Winchester model 670 30-06
*Stevens model 95 12-gauge shotgun.
*Mauser 8mm rifle with scope.
*Revelation 12-gauge shotgun.
*Intratec Tec-9 9mm semiautomatic pistol.
