Policy

Expert Documents Booby Traps at Holmes Apartment

Place was rigged to blow with napalm, glycerine, and a rug soaked with gasoline and oil

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An FBI bomb technician testified Tuesday that mass murder suspect James Holmes rigged his apartment with a series of homemade bombs that could be accidentally detonated, decimating his apartment building and creating a diversion away from shootings at a movie theater in Aurora.

Garrett Gumbinner, in the second day of a preliminary hearing, said Holmes booby-trapped his apartment with an array of homemade explosives that would be tripped when the front door was opened. The setup included materials as elaborate as napalm and glycerine mixed with potassium magnate, and the carpet was soaked in gasoline and oil, so it could catch fire.

Gumbinner detailed how Holmes rigged the door with fishing line so when it opened, a thermos filled with glycerine would spill into a pan full of potassium magnate, setting off sparks.