THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 4, 1994 TAG: 9406040262
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: D3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER AND STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: 940604 LENGTH: VIRGINIA BEACH
Police and Fire Department investigators arrested Billy Ray Armstrong, whose age and address were not known, about 2:30 p.m. after confiscating explosives found in his van. At the time, the vehicle was parked at Owl Creek at a city-owned boat ramp.
{REST} Armstrong, who lives in Virginia Beach, was being held at the city jail Friday night, charged with possession of explosive devices. More charges are pending, authorities said.
Little information about the explosives was released; authorities cited an ongoing investigation that might yield additional arrests. It was unclear what the devices were to have been used for, how they were made, what they were made of or how powerful they were.
``The danger to the public was negligible,'' given the way the devices were stored in the van, said Fire Department spokesman Chase Sargent. An explosion would ``have probably just done damage to the vehicle.'' But ignited outside the van, the devices ``could have killed people,'' he said.
Although he declined to discuss the intended purpose of the explosives, Sargent said there was ``no legitimate or lawful reason or purpose'' for Armstrong to have had the devices.
Navy SEAL members used special boats to remove some of the devices. A small amount of explosive material was blown up in a sandy area of the Owl Creek boat ramp, about 50 yards from where Armstrong's blue and white van was parked.
The marina off General Booth Boulevard, near the Marine Science Museum, was briefly closed.
The confiscated materials were reportedly some type of grenades and plastic explosives, but Sargent said he could not confirm that.
Armstrong's arrest capped a three-day investigation that was sparked by tips passed to detectives. Sargent declined to say what the informants told police, however.
The SEALs, most wearing protective vests and helmets, loaded the devices into as many as three special gray boats. About 5 p.m., the boats rumbled from the ramp as a police boat secured the waterway.
Sargent declined to say where the devices were being taken, but it is believed they were transferred to Camp Pendleton for examination.
{KEYWORDS} EXPLOSIVES
by CNB