A crude, but potentially lethal, incendiary device exploded outside the Colorado Springs chapter of the NAACP this morning. Thankfully, no one was injured in the explosion, but there is growing concern about this latest attack on an NAACP office.
At approximately 10:45 am local time, a loud explosion was heard outside the building on the 600 block of South El Paso Street on the southern edge of Colorado Springs.
Colorado Springs NAACP chapter president, Henry Allen Jr., told The Gazette that the explosion was strong enough to knock items off the walls and that volunteers who looked outside to see what happened saw what they described as a gas can rigged with some kind of incendiary device, such as a flare.
"We believe in civil rights for all, and really we won’t work in fear and we won’t be deterred," Allen told the newspaper. "We’ll move on. … This won’t deter us from doing the job we want to do in the community."
Local law enforcement along with agents from the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on the scene later in the day. Streets in the area have been closed as part of the investigation. Shortly after initial reports of the explosion, police said they heard a report that a person was seen at the site shortly before it happened.
IREHR will continue to watch this developing situation closely.
