Joshua Redden in court
A man found with an explosive device in his backpack in front of a Highway 153 title loan company said he had it for protection from a street gang.
Fire Investigator Anthony Moore testified Thursday that Joshua Luke Redden told him that he had some dealings with the MS-13 gang and "they were after him." He said if they attacked him, he planned to use the bomb "to take out as many of them as I can."
Charges against Redden in connection with the May 23 incident that brought an evacuation of nearby businesses and the temporary shutdown of Highway 153 were bound to the Grand Jury by General Sessions Court Judge Christie Sell.
She also revoked a prior probation against Redden and ordered him to serve that sentence. He remains in jail under the same bond.
Investigator Moore said he asked Redden how he had come to make the bomb and he said "he just thought about it and put it together."
He said it contained some older 22 shells with a couple of other shells wadded together with a blasting cap. He said there was a wire sticking out of the device. With him he had three three-volt batteries strung together that were to have been used to detonate the bomb.
The investigator said Redden stated he got the blasting cap from a construction site. He said blasting caps are suppose to be strictly controlled.
On the way to be interviewed, he said Redden "was apologetic. I think he was a little scared."
Officer Joe Ketron said he responded to a suspicious person call and found Redden sleeping with his head on the sidewalk. He said he was very startled when he awoke, but he said afterwards he did not appear to be disoriented. He said Redden said he had not slept for several days.
He found some drugs and drug paraphernalia on him as well as a large knife in his belt and a pocket knife.
The officer said he then found the explosive device as he went through his backpack. He said, "Obviously, I was a little bit in shock about what I had just pulled out of the backpack."
He said he laid it on the hood of his patrol care and "I got as far away from that thing as I could."
The bomb squad was called and detonated the device using a robot behind a nearby building.