Blasts put N.M. churches on edge
Officials at a loss on who might be targeting sites in Las Cruces
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Two homemade bombs exploded this month during busy Sunday services at Catholic and Baptist churches here, and a third, undetonated explosive was discovered Friday near a leaking sprinkler valve at a Presbyterian church, fueling unease in this placid city in southern New Mexico, the second largest in the state.
Still, more than two weeks after the explosions, local and federal authorities have yet to uncover a plausible motive, a potential suspect or a clear link among the churches other than their shared Christianity. No concrete leads
A grainy surveillance video of a young man in shorts and work boots walking along the parking lot of Calvary Baptist Church right before the bomb there exploded has generated some tips, but no concrete leads.
“We’re still connecting the dots,” said Las Cruces Police Chief Jaime Montoya.
Investigators have cast a broad net, questioning political activists, members and neighbors of the churches, as well as witnesses to the blasts, in search of clues — any clue.
They are also on high alert. No one was injured in the explosions, according to police, but on Sunday, federal agents guided bomb-sniffing dogs through careful perimeter surveys of the targeted churches and several others. Local police have fielded repeated reports of suspicious packages since the explosions, staging hasty evacuations of an apartment complex, convenience store, mall, nursing home and, on Monday, a post office downtown.
On Tuesday, bomb threats were called in to the Las Cruces District Courthouse and the city’s adult probation office, rattling already frayed nerves. In the end, the threats and the packages were all deemed unfounded. Seeking public’s help
On Sunday during an 8 a.m. Mass at Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church, where the first bomb went off, Robert M. White Sr., an assistant special agent in charge with the FBI in Albuquerque, urged parishioners to “look back one day, look back one week, for anything out of the ordinary” preceding the explosion.
He signaled, however, that investigators still had no idea how many people they were looking for.
Stephan Marshall, the chief division counsel for the FBI in Albuquerque, said all three bombs are thought to have been placed by the same person or people. But, he added, “at this point, we haven’t gotten anything definitive.”