‘Gift’ for therapist a bomb; man jailed

A Little Rock man was arrested Thursday after police say he delivered a pipe bomb to his therapist, who showed off the “gift” to coworkers before realizing it possibly contained explosives.

Aaron Lewis, 37, was arrested at his home in Little Rock on Thursday by North Little Rock police detectives and agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said Sgt. Brian Dedrick, a North Little Rock police spokesman. Details from the arrest were not available Thursday evening.

About 1:34 p.m. Wednesday, officers responded to the Family Service Agency at 628 W. Broadway where they spoke with Marlyn Lipton, 57, a therapist who works in the building. Lipton told police that she “received a gift” Tuesday from a client, whom she identified as Lewis, a police report said.

The “gift” was a 4-inch copper pipe that was sealed on both ends and which had “a fuse coming out of one end.”

She examined the device several times over the next

day and a half and “thought nothing about it,” until she reviewed Lewis’ file and “discovered that he has made similar devices in the past, which has caused harm to himself and property,” the report said.

North Little Rock police and fire personnel contacted the Little Rock Fire Department bomb squad, which responded around 2 p.m., spokesman Capt. Jason Weaver said.

The third floor, where the bomb was located, already had been partially evacuated and the bomb squad picked up the device and transported it to the department’s main station in a “safe box,” Weaver said.

Although the Little Rock bomb squad usually “disrupts” explosives they’ve been dispatched to handle, the device was handed over intact to ATF agents, who will analyze it for evidence, Weaver said.

Agents with the ATF then obtained warrants for Lewis’ arrest.

The bomb delivery spurred a motion to revoke conditions of release in an ongoing federal case filed in 2011 in the Eastern District of Arkansas against Lewis, which began almost a year after he arrived at UAMS Medical Center with severe injuries to his feet in October 2010.

At the time, police responded to Lewis’ house at 4 Ohio Cove shortly after he was admitted to the hospital. Officers could smell “explosive material” and found blood in the home’s carport.

Inside the house, the Little Rock bomb squad found carbon dioxide cartridges that had been altered and taped together.

Lewis was released from custody Nov. 1, 2011, and his federal trial was set to begin May 21, court filings show.

Lewis’ bomb-making history dates back to at least 2005, according to court records.

On April 26, 2005, Lewis’ then- girlfriend was pulled over in Forrest City. Inside the vehicle, police found a pipe bomb, which the woman told police was constructed by Lewis, whom she had dropped off moments before, an arrest affidavit states.

Lewis was arrested and charged with possession of explosives. Lewis was sentenced to three years of probation in April 2006 and ordered to “a treatment facility because of mental disease or defect,” court records state.

On Thursday night, Lewis was held at the Pulaski County jail without bail.