Gilroy police continued to investigate a crudely constructed explosive device found in the parking lot of a west Gilroy shopping center March 26.
The makeshift device did not detonate before police and county bomb technicians found it and rendered it safe, according to police.
No suspects have yet been identified in relation to the device, according to Gilroy Police Sgt. Geoff Guerin. The bomb was found early in the morning when a passerby saw it on the ground at the northern end of the parking lot of the shopping center located at 8080 Santa Teresa Blvd. Guerin said the bomb was reported to 911 before 7am, when a popular restaurant and other businesses in the building were not yet open to the public.
Police described the explosive device as a “silver tubular object with a green fuse.” The store-bought fuse had been lit, but failed to ignite the device for unknown reasons. The device was about seven inches long and one inch in diameter, and wrapped in a shiny foil.
Gilroy offices called the Santa Clara County Bomb Squad to the scene. After inspecting the object and taking x-rays of it, investigators determined the device was live and homemade, but poorly constructed.
County bomb technicians removed the device from the parking lot after rendering it safe, Guerin said. Investigators at the county crime lab were hoping to procure additional evidence from the device in hopes of identifying where, when or by whom it was constructed.
