ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 23, 1996 TAG: 9605230058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BRISTOL
SOURCE: Associated Press
Donald Eugene Puckett served seven years in prison after wounding an officer in a 1979 shootout with police. This time, he was better prepared.
Seventeen homemade bombs were dispersed throughout every room of Puckett's house. Loaded weapons with thousands of rounds of spare ammunition were placed at each window.
Washington County Sheriff Kenneth Hayter believes Puckett, who was arrested by undercover officers posing as civilians with car trouble, was ``planning to have a family massacre.''
Sue Puckett called authorities Monday and expressed extreme concern about her estranged husband's mental state, Hayter said. She told an officer that Puckett had threatened to cut off her head in front of family and friends he invited to a cookout. She also warned them Puckett, 44, would be heavily armed.
``I told them he was very dangerous in the state of mind he was in,'' Sue Puckett said.
Two undercover officers obtained an arrest warrant and went to Puckett's mobile home dressed in shorts Monday. Puckett was standing on his driveway when the officers asked for a container of water to fill the radiator of their car, which they said had overheated.
Once the officers got close to Puckett, they identified themselves and subdued him after he pulled out a knife, Hayter said.
The officers spotted a rifle mounted on a tripod on the trailer's porch and what appeared to be a homemade bomb just inside the doorway.
Several surrounding trailers were evacuated as a search warrant was being obtained by law enforcement agents from the sheriff's office; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; and Virginia State Police.
Authorities said the search turned up 17 homemade bombs constructed of glass jars and plastic containers filled with black smokeless gunpowder, thousands of rounds of ammunition and nails, accompanied by canisters of gasoline.
``The scene made me think he was planning to have a family massacre,'' Hayter said. ``Every room had a bomb in it, some of them had two or three, and all of them had fuses in them. It reminded me of David Koresh's compound.''
Koresh and 80 members of a cult he led in Waco, Texas, died three years ago in the fiery end to a 51-day standoff with federal agents.
About $7,500 worth of marijuana was found throughout Puckett's trailer and in an outbuilding behind the residence, officials said.
Hayter said Puckett had made threats last week to blow up a Bristol bank after he was turned down for a personal loan to buy a bus.
The officers who went to his house had an emergency custody order for a mental evaluation and a misdemeanor warrant accusing Puckett of threatening people with assault.
Puckett has been charged with assault on a police officer and resisting arrest. Hayter said federal authorities were in the process of placing charges against the man involving the weapons and explosives, and drug charges also were pending.
But those charges may be put off while doctors at Central State Hospital in Petersburg perform a mental evaluation of Puckett.
``The case is still under investigation,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Mountcastle said Wednesday.
Sue Puckett said her husband has been treated for mental illness. ``He's gotten off his medication,'' she told the Bristol Herald Courier. ``Don Puckett is a good person when he's in his own right mind.''
LENGTH: Medium: 69 linesby CNB