An explosion outside an NAACP office building in Colorado on Tuesday morning that rattled neighbors was caused deliberately, officials say.
An improvised explosive device was detonated against the exterior wall of the NAACP building on South El Paso Street in Colorado Springs around 10:45 a.m. Mountain time. No one was injured, said Amy Sanders, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Denver.
A gasoline can had been placed near the device but did not ignite during the explosion, Sanders said.
The sidewalk and the local NAACP headquarters building, which also houses a barbershop, suffered minor damage, she said.
FBI Denver and the Colorado Springs Police Department are on the scene. A man aged about 40 is a person of interest in the investigation. He may be driving a 2000 or older-model dirty white pick-up truck with paneling, a dark-colored bed liner, an open tailgate and a missing or covered license plate.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is also investigating the case, according to Christopher Amon, acting spokesman for the agency's Denver office.
It's not clear whether anyone was inside the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People office when the explosion occurred, but Gene Southerland, whose barbershop is in the same single-story building as the NAACP, said he heard the explosion Tuesday morning.
“I made sure my three customers were OK, then walked outside,” Southerland said. “On the northeast side of the building I saw a red gas can on the ground. Neighbors started walking out of their houses asking me, ‘What happened, what happened?’”
“It’s messed up, man. It’s horrible,” Southerland said. “In broad daylight? Just goes to show there’s always a threat.”
