UPDATE: More details emerge from the Jehovah’s Witnesses worship hall attack suspect's prior threats and bomb-making.
The man who attempted to bomb a Jehovah’s Witnesses worship hall in Thornton before killing himself and his wife on Christmas Day also bombed a union office that morning, Thornton police said Wednesday.
Investigators say Apodaca walked into the IBEW Local Union 68 with “what appeared to be a bucket” around 8:45 a.m. He then left the building, got back into his vehicle and “a large explosion was observed” in the building, police said. Both died. The bombs inside the meeting hall did not explode and only two people were inside at the time. One used a fire extinguisher to put out a fire that had started near the devices, police said. Investigators later found that one device “nearly detonated” before it was either extinguished or malfunctioned. That device was “attached to a bucket” that was similar to the one used in the union office bombing, police said.
Apodoca also previously threatened to shoot his wife and a union representative after he was fired from his job as an electrician in 2021, his former employer alleged in separate court filings. It was not immediately clear Wednesday whether Westminster police actually sent an officer to check on Apodaca that night. Police records show an officer was dispatched for a welfare check at 7:02 p.m. on Sept. 13, 2021, and that the officer “cleared” or ended the call at 7:26 p.m. — but it does not show that the officer actually arrived at Apodaca’s house.
In addition to those incidents, Apodaca also made threats after he was fired from his job as an electrician in 2021, according to an application for a civil protection order filed in December 2021 by a representative of Apodaca’s former employer, Sturgeon Electric Company Inc., where Apodaca worked on and off as a union contractor for years.
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