Bomb scare brings downtown Eugene to standstill
EUGENE, Ore. - A man who claimed to have a bomb in his van with a 300-foot kill radius prompted evacuations across several city blocks, delayed passenger train service and brought downtown Eugene to a standstill for more than 4 hours Tuesday.
Police crisis negotiators talked the man out of the van without incident. The bomb squad used a robot to investigate the van and determined there was no threat to the public.
But for officers responding to a report of a man threatening to detonate a bomb inside a van parked in front of the downtown Eugene Post Office, the situation was very real.
"He claimed to have a large amount of explosives in the van," Officer Judd Warden said. "Two blocks in every direction, that's a lot of explosives and a lot of people could have been affected."
The first report came in shortly after 11 a.m. The entire Eugene Post Office evacuated, as did neighboring buildings.
As the situation came into focus, police moved the public and journalists farther and farther from the scene as a safety precaution.
The evacuation was later extended to include the north side of the Eugene Hilton.
"They said there was a bomb threat and they were afraid windows could crack and the glass could cut us up so they moved us," said Jason McKinney, who evacuated from the hotel. "I didn't even have time to grab her shoes."
Police shut down Willamette Street and Sixth and Seventh avenues downtown during the busy lunch hour, which caused a traffic jam as drivers detoured around the scene.
Crisis negotiators spent two hours talking with the man inside the van, later identified by police as 62-year-old Patrick Smoly of Corvallis, before convicing him to leave the van.
Then the Metro Explosives Disposal Unit got to work, first sending a robot to check the van, then doing a physical inspection before declaring the van was not a threat to the public.
Police didn't immediately know why Smoly parked outside the Post Office.
"I don't know the reason for that but he did make statements about not wanting to hurt people," said Lt. Pete Deshpande with the Eugene Police Department.
Smoly faces a charge of disorderly conduct and could face federal charges after the FBI and U.S. Postal Service finish their investigation.
