SEATTLE —
A light rail station was closed, train traffic was halted, and police and a bomb squad swarmed a South Seattle Chase bank after a firebomb was found in the ATM foyer.
Seattle police Sgt. Sean Whitcomb said the device was set to go off, but failed to ignite. Whitcomb said the device was placed underneath an ATM.
Police said officers responded Friday morning around 6:36 a.m. after they were called to the bank on Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Myrtle Avenue South.
Ericson Gonzales reported the device when his wife stopped at the bank to get some cash for gasoline and noticed something strange — two clear bottles, with tape around them and a lighter in the middle.
The foyer is only accessible to those with a bank card when the main part of the bank is closed.
“I thought it was a movement-activated device, that might blow-up, so I told my wife, ‘get away right away,’” said Gonzales, who flagged down an officer.
The Othello light rail station on Martin Luther King Jr. Way was evacuated and closed, and Central Link light rail service was halted between the Columbia City and Rainier Beach stations and MLK Way was closed for four hours.
Once the bomb squad arrived, a robot was deployed to take a closer look at the device. At one point, video from Chopper 7 showed two robots at the scene. One moved directly to the bank’s front door.
“It was an incendiary device, so, designed to burn,” said Seattle police spokesman Mark Jamieson. He said there was no threating message attached to the device.
Officers defused the firebomb and train service resumed by 9 a.m. All lanes of MLK Way reopened by about 11:15 a.m.
Jamieson said police are investigating the incident, calling it a failed arson. Surveillance video is being collected and detectives are working with the bank to see who else used the ATMs Friday morning.
Gonzales said he saw a gray Ford Ranger pickup speed off just after they found the device, and told detectives he wondered if the truck may have had something to do with the firebomb.