COLUMBUS – A group of Delaware County high school students were found in possession of enough explosives to cause significant damage to the apartment building where they stored the material, according to law enforcement and fire officials.
Two students who attend classes in the Olentangy Local Schools have been charged with unlawful possession of dangerous ordnance as part of an ongoing investigation that began with a discarded improvised explosive device and potential charges could be filed against additional students, according to a joint press release issued Wednesday by Battalion Chief Steve Martin of the Columbus Division of Fire and Delaware County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Tracy Whited.
The discovery of the homemade explosive device, which had been attached to a fire extinguisher, and thrown into a retention pond in the area of Arrowfeather and Pennycress lanes in southern Delaware County on Saturday led to a three-story apartment building at the Residences at Remington Woods apartment complex, approximately 500 feet from the pond, where additional devices and explosive materials were found, Martin said.
“The variety and quantity of different explosives that were in this apartment would have definitely destroyed the unit if not the entire third floor,” said Columbus Fire and Explosives investigator Mike DeFrancisco.
Delaware County Sheriff’s deputies, Columbus police officers and the Columbus Bomb Squad responded to the area after a resident found the device after it had been thrown into the pond, Martin said.
Columbus bomb technicians rendered the improvised explosive safe and DeFrancisco and his fellow investigators identified a local high school student as a suspect, the release said.
With the help of Delaware County deputies, they executed a search warrant at the suspect’s home where they found approximately 15 other improvised explosive devices, approximately five pounds of explosive powders and many other components of explosives and improvised explosive devices, Martin and Whited said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or significant property damage associated with this incident, Martin and Whited said.
Unlawful possessions of dangerous ordnance is a fifth-degree felony, they said.