Following the shooting death of a local antifa radical earlier this month, police in Eugene, Ore., on Monday found incendiary devices planted outside their headquarters. “I don’t know what kind of damage they could have done,” Lt. David Natt said. “This is not a hoax device. These are very serious matters.”
KMTR reported:
The devices are now at the Eugene Police forensics lab for processing.
“Our hope is we get some physical evidence off it, and that physical evidence leads us to potentially somebody involved in the production and/or deployment of these devices,” Natt said.
Natt declined to describe the devices or say how many devices were found.
“We kind of hang on to some of the details for the purposes of bettering the investigation,” he said. “When we are in a position to release more details about style, type, make, model, that kind of stuff as it pertains to what was found, we’re more than willing to do that. But we want to give our investigators the best start we can to get to the bottom of what this is all about.”
Incendiary devices found outside @EugenePolice headquarters are now in the hands of forensic scientists https://t.co/SpeaKKNEC4 pic.twitter.com/hY19vCbZu7
— KMTR NBC 16 (@KMTR) January 30, 2019
On January 11, the attempted arrest of antifa activist Charlie Landeros at a Eugene middle school went horribly awry when the armed radical decided to fight the police. Police were called to the school amid a child custody dispute between Landeros and his ex-wife. During the confrontation, Landeros, wearing a “Smash the Patriarchy” t-shirt, pulled a 9mm handgun from his holster and pointed the weapon at the school resource officer attempting to make the arrest.
As the other officer tried to take control of the weapon, Landeros again pointed the gun at the school resource officer and fired two shots, according to district attorney investigators.
“Officer Timm recognized that the situation was dangerous and needed to be controlled. Both were in fear of their own death or the death of other bystanders or students in the area,” District Attorney Patty Perlow wrote. “Officer Johns said he knew that if he let go of Landeros’ hand in the struggle, they were going to be killed. Officer Timm fired one bullet directly at Charles Landeros, striking Landeros in the temple, which was the cause of death.”
Investigators from the DA’s office determined that the shooting was justified based on video evidence and witness statements.
The Eugene Police Department last week released body camera video of the incident:
Landeros was reported to the FBI in 2018 for threatening to kill “the pigs” in a Facebook comment.
“In 2018, the FBI received information on a tip line that Charles Landeros was posting violent anti-government messages on social media,” according to the DA. “The information was referred to the local FBI office, who concluded there was insufficient information to substantiate that a crime had been committed.”
On January 9, two days before the deadly shooting outside the school, police in nearby Springfield received a screenshot of a Facebook comment on a story about a man shot and killed by police in Portland.
A comment posted by “Charlie Landeros” read, “Time to start killing pigs,” investigators wrote.
The investigation also found that Landeros served in the Army from June 2006 to June 2012 and was honorably discharged.
Landeros, who used they/them/their pronouns, was a member of Community Armed Self-Defense (CASD), according to the Daily Emerald.
CASD was created as a “new liberatory and inclusive space for all oppressed peoples to learn about armed self-defense,” according to the group’s Facebook page, which is no longer publicly available.
Community Armed Self Defense’s Facebook page said that they could not count on the police to protect marginalized people, and that firearms help marginalized groups protect themselves.
“The police are not here to protect us. They are more likely to harm us themselves than they are to ‘serve or protect’ us,” said the group’s Facebook page description.
Interestingly, Landeros said in an October 2017 interview in Eugene Weekly, “I believe that there is going to be a high likelihood of a violent hate crime on this campus from the alt-right.”
Less than two years later, he pulled a gun on two cops inside a school and tried to shoot them.
Naturally, a Portland-based antifascist group is accusing the police of murdering their “comrade.”
https://twitter.com/PopMobPDX/status/1084494781617627136
Meanwhile, the Eugene Police are investigating in earnest the explosive devices left outside their headquarters, although they have not yet publicly linked the case to the police shooting of Landeros.
“We’re going to ask our neighbors for any footage, and we’re going to review any footage that we have,” Natt said.
“I don’t have any motivation. We have no suspect information at this time. We’re just taking this set of circumstances very seriously,” he said. “Cases like this can be difficult. Somebody out there knows something about it, and we’d like to hear from them.”
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