Passenger Trains > Grenade Seized At Union Station

Amtrak Officer Secures Device By Martin Weil and Petula Dvorak
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, June 10, 2003; Page B01


A man who brandished a hand grenade during a robbery attempt at Union Station was arrested last night after an Amtrak police officer grabbed the partially activated device from him, authorities said.

The officer clasped a safety catch for at least 15 minutes to prevent any explosion.

A homeless man who has a record of drug arrests was charged in the incident late last night, said Terrance W. Gainer, chief of the U.S. Capitol Police. Police accused the man, identified as Juann Tubbs, 38, of assault and attempted robbery while armed.

"This man is in need of mental help," Gainer said. Speaking at a time of heightened concern about terrorism, he said there was no indication that the incident was anything other than a holdup. "This was a good old-fashioned robbery."

It was not clear whether the grenade, one of two in the man\'s possession, was a live weapon.

The episode began about 8 p.m. with the robbery attempt at the Redskins store inside the station, touching off a pursuit that ended near First and G streets NE, where the man wrestled with a U.S. Capitol Police officer and the Amtrak officer. "In the altercation, the pin [on the grenade] was pulled and the Amtrak officer held it closed and secured" until a bomb disposal unit reached the area and took possession of the object, an Amtrak spokesman said.

As the incident unfolded, police shut down nearby streets and officers from a variety of law enforcement agencies flocked to the scene, the emergency lights on their vehicles flashing throughout the neighborhood just west of the station. Patrons of nearby taverns gathered on curbs to watch as explosives technicians went about their work.

Authorities said that when the man touched off the incident by approaching the clerk at the Redskins store in the west hall of the station, his only demand was for money.

Amtrak spokesman Dan Stessel said the man brandished what he said was a grenade and asked for $20.

But the clerk, according to accounts, apparently did not believe that the grenade was a live weapon and refused to comply.

According to accounts provided by Amtrak, the man left the store empty-handed, and according to one of the accounts, the clerk contacted Union Station security personnel.

As the man was leaving the station, authorities said, two of the station\'s uniformed security guards caught sight of him and noted that he was holding an object. The guards, according to Amtrak, summoned Amtrak police.

Shortly afterward, the man was seen outside the station, heading around the corner to First Street NE, which is on the west side of the station.

Near an office building in the unit block of First Street NE, the man was spotted by the Amtrak and Capitol Police officers.

It was in that area, authorities said, that the two officers struggled with the man, who was apparently still holding the grenade that he had brandished in the store.

During the struggle, Stessel said, the railroad police officer saw that the pin of the grenade had been pulled.

The officer seized the grenade and, according to several accounts, held in place a second safety device, a kind of metal bar known as a spoon, to prevent the grenade from possibly detonating.

Capitol Police spokeswoman Jessica Gissubel said the officer "was able to grab it from [the man\'s] hand and hold the spoon portion and hold that down" until the bomb disposal unit arrived.

Authorities said the man was carrying a duffel bag containing a grenade similar to the one he had brandished.

An Army officer familiar with grenades in current use said that pulling the pin alone will not detonate the weapon.

Although it is widely believed that the removal of the pin will cause the grenade to explode, the officer said that removing the pin only activates the second stage in the firing process. The grenade detonates, he said, only after the strike lever or "spoon," a handle draped over the firing mechanism, flies off. If the spoon can be kept from detaching, the grenade will not explode, the officer said.

"If you can hold the spoon indefinitely," he said, "the grenade will not activate

> Although it is widely believed that the removal of the pin
> will cause the grenade to explode, the officer said that
> removing the pin only activates the second stage in the firing
> process. The grenade detonates, he said, only after the strike
> lever or "spoon," a handle draped over the firing mechanism,
> flies off. If the spoon can be kept from detaching, the grenade
> will not explode, the officer said.
>
> "If you can hold the spoon indefinitely," he said, "the
> grenade will not activate


Not sure I\'d want to test that myself.

Dave D.
Los Angeles, CA

-Rail Radio Online-Home of the "TrainTenna" RR Monitoring Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/railradioonline
-------------------------------------------------
-The Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Photo Archive & E-Mail List-
http://eje.railfan.net
-------------------------------------------------
-The Ashley, Drew & Northern Railfan Page-
http://eje.railfan.net/adn