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A home in White Settlement contained an explosive device that is used in military "cluster bombs," officials said Friday.
Federal agents planned to interrogate people who previously lived at the home in the 800 block of Sandell Drive, said Tom Crowley, spokesman for the Dallas office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives."There is potential of federal charges down the road," Crowley said, "if we can prove possession."It's a very a dangerous instrument." The charge would be possession of an unregistered explosive device, Crowley said. The charge is punishable by a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The device was removed by the Fort Worth bomb squad. Crowley described it as an "antipersonnel submunition from a cluster bomb, which detonates by impact." The object was yellow, with fins and pins on the back, said Lt. J.P. Bevering, spokesman for White Settlement police.That description, and the information from Crowley, suggests that the device was a "bomblet" from a military cluster bomb, which is typically packed with hundreds of bomblets. An aircraft drops the bomb, which opens in mid air and scatters the bomblets over a target area below.When asked if other bomblets could be unaccounted for by the military, Crowley said, "Obviously we're going to be checking into that."White Settlement firefighters were called at about 10:37 a.m. by a landlord who said he found the device at the house, which he owns on Sandell Drive, Lt. Bevering said. "He was cleaning up after some renters who moved out," Bevering said. "He found a suspicious device and thought maybe it was a bomb."Lt. Kent Worley, spokesman for the Fort Worth Fire Department, said bomb squad specialists told him that the object was an "anti personnel device," which they planned to detonate at a special facility.Three nearby schools were placed in "perimeter lock down" until about 2:20 p.m. when the bomb squad finally removed the device, Bevering said.Included were Liberty Elementary School, Brewer Middle School and Mesa High School and Alternative Campus, said Desiree Coyle, schools spokeswoman.Perimeter lock down means parents and some people may enter the campus with an escort after presenting identification, Coyle said. "Lock down" means no one is allowed on or off campus until police declare it's safe, Coyle said.
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