TEMPLE HILLS, Md. - An explosion shattered windows and damaged a parked truck, and authorities found more than a dozen pipe bombs in an apartment. A 13-year-old boy was being questioned.
No one was injured in the Monday night blast, which forced the evacuation of 24 apartments.
Bomb squad members were called to the apartment complex around 9:30 p.m. Monday. By late Tuesday morning, a total of 20 explosive devices had been taken from the home. A remote control robot was used to transport the cylinders onto the complex's parking lot where they were disabled.
''It's very stressful work because pipe bombs are very unpredictable,'' said Mark Brady, a spokesman for the Prince George's County Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department.
Investigators questioned a 13-year-old, who lived in the apartment with his mother, for several hours. They also searched Thurgood Marshall Middle School, where the boy is a seventh-grade student, but that search turned up nothing.
Among potential charges are possession and manufacturing of explosives, and reckless endangerment, Brady said. Each could carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine if a person is convicted as an adult.
