Hospital SOs tackle man with grenades

[EMTGuard]

I heard this on NPR on the drive home this morning. The Security Officers are getting some good press out of it.
Source- http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,320538,00.html

Man Walks Into Detroit Emergency Room With Grenades, Tackled By Security
Sunday, January 06, 2008

DETROIT — A man with a history of mental illness entered an emergency room with two live grenades and was tackled by a security officer, authorities said.

Detroit Receiving Hospital guards searched the man after he triggered a metal detector Saturday night. An officer found the man had a grenade in one hand with the pin out, The Detroit Free Press reported.

The officer tackled him, and the emergency room was evacuated. No injuries were reported.

Police spokesman James Tate said the 44-year-old man has a history of mental illness and a military background. The grenades were a type that might be used in training and much less powerful than combat grenades.

Police found two pipe bombs and two grenades in the man's house. He was hospitalized for evaluation.

A good video segment to watch is at- http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/myfox/pa...Y&pageId=1.1.1

Congrats to the SOs who stopped this nutcase from harming anyone.

[sgtnewby]

From Hennepin County Medical Center Security;

Congatulations on a job well done!!!
You are truely heros.

[JB diligence]

Finding IED's at the man's home is even more scary than training devices at the hospital which is scary enough.

GOOD JOB!

[NRM_Oz]

What The ??????

Bloody Hell !!! This is scary to wonder what other people walk around with in busy places like this. !!!

[EMTGuard]

Interestingly the article noted that the man was carrying training grenades-

The grenades were a type that might be used in training and much less powerful than combat grenades.

If true then it was most likely a M69 grenade. I threw a couple dozen of these in Basic training and can tell you from experiance that the most that would have happened if he set off a M69 would have been a pop like a firecracker and a little smoke. The body of the grenade is designed to be used and reused many times by simply screwing on a new fuse assimbly after each use.
More about the M69 at http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m69.htm



This is in no way meant to undermine or belittle the actions of the SOs involved. They could not know for certain what the man held and had to assume that he was carrying an explosive capable of doing great damage.

[kingsman]

keep in mind tha the guy could have filled the interior with gunpowder and made it into a real explosive.

[N. A. Corbier]

Live grenade fuse assembly with improvised explosives in the grenade body? It won't have the effective range of a "real" hand grenade, but damn if it won't ruin your day in close quarters.

Federal Law prohibits me from discussing any alleged experience I have as a teenager developing, assembling, or detonating any explosive device, but I can guess that black powder "bombs" can be mighty fun. And in turn, that "mighty fun" is not what a 1F black powder device will be when it detonates near you.

One of these days, I really need to get a 40mm grenade launcher. The bitch of it is paying 200 bucks (DD stamp) per GOLF BALL I shoot from the thing.

[EMTGuard]

keep in mind tha the guy could have filled the interior with gunpowder and made it into a real explosive.

I've done that. The explosion lifted a old refrigerator off the ground when it went off. Ahhh the good old days running around the woods doing militia training.

[NRM_Oz]

TLC - Toss, Look, Cover ............. what I recall from my reserves days.

99.99% of people want to Toss and get down not realising that IF you tossed it and it did not explode you need to know WHERE it went.

Forgeting the fact that these are training grenades, the average person if told "I have grenades here and I am going to hurt you" is not going to wait to have a good look at the colour or the shape.

[Alaska Security]

Mmm.. training grenades.

Frag out...


Good catch by the S/O's!