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PROVO — A 14-year-old Provo boy has been referred to 4th District Juvenile Court for allegedly keeping bomb-making materials in a shed behind his house.
Now police are trying to figure out how many explosives the boy may have set off, and whether he had any hurtful intentions or was just being mischievous.
On March 24, Provo police were called to the area of 1730 North and 1820 West on a report of a possible explosion, said Provo Police Sgt. Brian Taylor. Officers checked the area but could not find anything.
Four days later, a resource officer at Provo High School received information that the mother of a 14-year-old boy "had sent a mass text message out to the neighborhood a while ago apologizing for the explosion because it was just her son that accidentally set off some of his explosives," according to a search warrant affidavit unsealed on Tuesday.
Officers talked to the teen on March 29 and he told them that he had explosives in a shed at his house and that "he had been mixing a variety of chemicals to manufacture HMTD, ETN, black powder and other homemade explosives and had indeed caused the explosion causing Provo police to respond," the warrant states.
The Provo bomb squad responded to the boy's house later that day. Police seized a number of chemicals from the shed, including potassium nitrate, hydrochloric acid, magnesium powder, potassium permanganate, glycerin, nitric acid, boric acid, ammonium nitrate, erythritol, hexamine and homemade black powder, according to the affidavit.
The teen was referred to juvenile court on two cases. One was for possession of an explosive device, a second-degree felony, according to juvenile court records. The other, which was filed on Thursday, is for an explosion causing property damage, a first-degree felony, and criminal mischief a class B misdemeanor.
The second case was for an explosion at Westridge Elementary School, 1720 W. 1460 North, on March 24, according to court records.
Taylor said investigators were also looking at whether the boy was connected to at least one other explosion that occurred in September.
