House explodes in Arlington, Virginia, while police serving search warrant, officials say

Table Of Content

• New plan could help Prince George’s Co. residents boost their credit scores (and get paid for it)
• Arlington Fire Department investigates small series of explosions
• Arlington house explodes as police try to search home of someone firing flare gun
• Man who lived at Virginia home that exploded is presumed dead, police say

The suspect -- identified as 56-year-old James Yoo -- was the only person inside the residence at the time of the explosion and is presumed to be dead, Penn said. The fire department had turned off the gas at the residence prior to the explosion, according to Jenkins, who said he could not speculate on any cause or origin of the explosion at this time. The suspect, who was inside the Arlington duplex at the time of the explosion, is presumed dead, authorities said. They left and returned with body armor and a warrant to seize weapons Yoo may have had. Other neighbors heard the commotion from officers trying to bring Yoo into custody.

New plan could help Prince George’s Co. residents boost their credit scores (and get paid for it)

Officials have not been able to go into the home and could not confirm whether there were any deaths. "The people that live next door could not have made it out. And it could be a really bad day for them. But they made it out. So that’s why I say life is precious. If they would have been in there, they would have never survived." "Because his house is usually very neat and clean, always perfectly mowed, and not even a leaf on the ground in fall, and suddenly there was trash everywhere, clothes, things on his roof," Johnston said. "And it was just very unusual. And before we even got the chance to make a welfare check call, there were flares going up and the police were already there." In a LinkedIn post Friday, Yoo appeared to accuse his neighbors of being spies.

Arlington Fire Department investigates small series of explosions

Jenkins also noted that authorities turned off gas service to the home about 90 minutes before the explosion. Records show he sold a property in McLean, Va., for $1 million in 2021, after being ordered to do so by a judge in his divorce case. Yoo claimed two men, including a New York Times reporter he had seen on MSNBC, showed up at his residence in March 2017 impersonating FBI agents and asked him to stop sending materials to federal prosecutors in New York. A judge ordered Yoo to sell the Arlington property that exploded Monday by late October 2020 as part of the asset distribution in the divorce.

Arlington house explodes as police try to search home of someone firing flare gun

James Yoo is presumed dead after the Arlington residence went up in a fireball as police officers tried to serve a search warrant, authorities said Tuesday. Yoo, who described himself in some of his many court cases as a former security specialist for telecommunications companies, was rarely seen around his neighborhood in the county’s Bluemont area, residents said. Then, late Monday afternoon, someone began firing projectiles from “a flare-type gun” in the 800 block of North Burlington Street, police said. When officers arrived at Yoo’s home about 5 p.m., they were met with gunfire, and a barricade situation ensued. A home exploded in Arlington, Virginia, on Monday night and rocked a neighborhood with a powerful blast after police say a suspect fired a flare gun into the neighborhood dozens of times. “Our thoughts are with the police officers that were injured in that explosion,” Olivia Dalton, the White House principal deputy press secretary, told reporters on Air Force One on Tuesday.

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Another Instagram post from the same account, citing a different source, also blamed the blast on an alleged firefight. However, it said that the exchange had caused a flare gun to go off, which in turn ignited a gas pipeline. Over the years, Yoo filed a battery of lawsuits in New York and Virginia, accusing lawyers, judges, doctors and relatives of conspiring to violate his rights. The natural gas line to Yoo’s home was shut off before the explosion, Assistant Fire Chief Jason R. Jenkins told reporters. The officers escaped serious injury but it was unclear what happened to the suspect who was inside when the building was leveled, an Arlington county police spokesperson, Ashley Savage, said. After attempts to communicate with Yoo were unsuccessful, police obtained a search warrant.

Arlington, Virginia house explosion: What happened and who is the suspect?

The person inside did not respond, and officers were trying to execute the search warrant when "the suspect discharged several rounds, from what is believed to be a firearm, inside the home," police added. The authorities said that Mr. Yoo’s only previous encounters with the local police before Monday were related to a couple of noise complaints. But David Sundberg, assistant director in charge of the F.B.I.’s Washington field office, said that Mr. Yoo had submitted tips over the years about “alleged frauds” that he believed had been perpetrated against him. Yoo, who inherited the house from his parents, stated in unsuccessful legal filings over the years that he had long suffered from alcoholism.

Man who lived at Virginia home that exploded is presumed dead, police say

Police officials at the site suffered minor injuries while gas service to the home was turned off. They also said there is no ongoing threat to the public and no other suspects. “The fire department personnel absolutely saved lives” by evacuating residents of the neighborhood, Jenkins said. Police officials said Yoo was inside the home at the time of the explosion, and they have found human remains.

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Three police officers received minor injuries but were not taken to hospitals, the department said. Officials are unaware of anyone else who was hurt, they said at a news conference. David Sundberg, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office, told reporters that Yoo had communicated with the FBI via phone calls, online tips and letters over a number of years. "Human remains have been located at the scene, and the office of the chief medical examiner will work to positively identify the individual and determine the cause and manner of death," Penn told reporters during an afternoon news conference on Tuesday. A massive explosion engulfed a home and rocked a neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia, as police were investigating a man who fired a flare gun dozens of times from inside Monday night, police said.

AP AUDIO: Suspect who fired at Virginia officers from a duplex before it exploded is thought to be dead.

Police ID suspect in Arlington, Va., house explosion: Here's what to know - NPR

Police ID suspect in Arlington, Va., house explosion: Here's what to know.

Posted: Tue, 05 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Craig Kailimai, special agent in charge of the Washington field division for the ATF, said investigators were conducting a “grid search” of the home to determine the cause and origin of the explosion. Investigators have not yet identified human remains found inside the home, but “all factors point to that it’s this individual (Yoo),” Penn said. About 10 households were impacted by the incident, authorities said. Right before the explosion, police were using "nonflammable" chemical munitions to draw the suspect out of the home, Penn said. District Court for the Western District of New York, Yoo filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against a hospital in 2018, claiming he was hospitalized against his will in 2015.

He wrote that he believed that a New York Times reporter he saw on television was someone who had claimed to be an FBI agent and came to his house in 2017. He said the person warned him against further attempts to communicate with a U.S. attorney in western New York or he would face a harassment charge. He cited hospital records that reference a suicide note that he left for his wife, which he said he never wrote.

He said it wasn’t clear where in the house the shots were coming from or what the suspect was firing at. With his cellphone's camera, Wilson captured video of the inferno, which has been replayed countless times on local news stations. He said he heard police announce they were going to try to ram the front door, so he went on his roof to start recording. Penn said officers attempted to engage with Yoo to no avail, so they obtained a search warrant.

They said this was unlike the usually “very neat and clean” condition of the house. Another Arlington resident, Bob Maynes, reported feeling the tremble of the explosion. Yoo believed that a New York Times reporter he saw on television was someone who had claimed to be an FBI agent and came to his house in 2017.

When they breached the front door, the emergency response team was met with "multiple gunshots from a firearm coming from within the dwelling," Penn said. Video posted to social media showed the house disappearing under a ball of fire, lobbing debris into the night air and sending wreckage raining down onto the suburb of Washington, D.C. Neighbors said the blast could be heard and felt for miles. After they obtained a search warrant for the house in the 800 block of North Burlington Street, officers "attempted to make contact with the suspect over the telephone and through loudspeakers," police said in a statement. Video posted to social media showed a huge fireball and what appeared to be the roof and other debris lofted into the air during the blast, which neighbors said could be heard and felt for miles around in the Washington, D.C., suburb.

Arlington County Police Chief Andy Penn said at a news briefing Tuesday that the investigation of the explosion was ongoing and that the Virginia medical examiner’s office had yet to positively identify the person whose remains were found. The suspect who fired at officers from a duplex in an Arlington, Virginia, neighborhood before the home exploded on Monday night is presumed dead, according to authorities. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the explosion that was felt miles from the site, while Yoo’s troubling relationships with people in his life have come to the fore through details of his own social media posts and lawsuits. On Monday night in Arlington County, in the US state of Virginia, at least 30 shots were fired inside a residence. Soon after police arrived to investigate, an explosion occurred and the house burst into flames. As officers breached the door to enter the home, the suspect fired multiple gunshots from within the house, Penn said.

He claimed that the reporter threatened a harassment charge if Yoo made further attempts to communicate with a US attorney in western New York. Yoo’s 2018 lawsuit against his then-wife, younger sister and a hospital, filed after he said he was committed against his will, alleged conspiracy and a deprivation of his rights, amongst other crimes. Most homes in the north Arlington suburb – Bluemont, where the shooting occurred- are two attached units or “duplexes”. The house was in the 800 block of North Burlington Street in Arlington, Virginia, police said. The city is across the Potomac River from the US capital, Washington, DC.

It was “a flare-type gun,” Penn said, and more than 30 projectiles had been fired. As Yoo barricaded himself inside the home, authorities obtained a search warrant to enter the property and look for weapons, Penn said. Three officers reported minor injuries in the house explosion, but no one was taken to the hospital.