James Yoo, whose Arlington house exploded, had history of rambling lawsuits
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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.
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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.
ABC News Live
More than 160 power outages were initially reported in the area, but that number had decreased to 19 as of Tuesday morning. Monitoring the emergency response to a major explosion in the Bluemont neighborhood of Arlington tonight. This is very, very scary, and my profound thanks go out to first responders working to secure the area and keep everyone safe. Arlington County police have confirmed that James Yoo was the man at the center of the standoff at the Virginia home that exploded Monday night.
House explodes in Arlington, Virginia, while police serving search warrant, officials say
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.
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.
Suspect In Arlington House Explosion Presumed Dead: Police - Patch
Suspect In Arlington House Explosion Presumed Dead: Police.
Posted: Mon, 04 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Arlington Fire Department investigates small series of explosions
Chris White, a tech executive living in California, told NPR that he rented the house that exploded from Yoo and his wife from 2015 to 2016. A public records search shows the house had been owned by Yoo since 1992. Penn said Yoo did not have any previous interactions with officers at the address of the now-obliterated home. The only documented incidents between Yoo and law enforcement, he said, are two calls for service for loud noise over the past couple of years.
They are still waiting for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to identify the body they found, but they are presuming Yoo died in the blast. The police said that three officers had suffered “minor injuries,” but no one was transported to the hospital. Early Tuesday, the police had not identified the man inside the home or what his condition was. The police said on social media that residents should avoid the area, part of a densely populated suburban neighborhood with parks, restaurants and schools. A house in Arlington, Va., exploded into flames on Monday night while the police were preparing to search it after reports of gunfire and a standoff with the man who lived there.
The FBI in Washington was assisting in the investigation, a spokesperson for the agency's field office there said. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also said it had fire investigators at the scene ready to assist. Chief Andy Penn of the Arlington County Police Department declined to say at a news conference on Tuesday that the authorities were “fully confident” that the remains that were found were those of Mr. Yoo.
House explodes in Virginia as police try to execute search warrant for suspect setting off flare gun - WTOP
House explodes in Virginia as police try to execute search warrant for suspect setting off flare gun.
Posted: Mon, 04 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Stephanie Yoo and a divorce attorney who represented her did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. Court records show that Yoo and his ex-wife, Stephanie Yoo, had a contentious divorce that was finalized in 2018 and that James Yoo later tried to overturn. In 2020, Yoo was held in contempt of court for failing to distribute assets to his ex-wife by a court-ordered deadline. The White House is monitoring developments on the house explosion, a spokeswoman said. Information was not released on how many homes were damaged or how many residents needed to evacuate their homes.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said federal fire agents are assisting the investigation. The circumstances of the explosion were under investigation, Savage said. "Over the years he lived there, I might have seen him three or four times, and [he] always had a backpack," she said. He put foil over the windows, blocked everything and never came out of the house," she told NBC News, estimating the man had lived there for at least five years. Before Monday's blast, the home stood out because of the aluminum foil covering windows and because its resident made no efforts to meet neighbors, Mitchell said. No firefighters or other people were injured in the blaze, officials said.
One dead body was found in the house, suspected to be Yoo’s, and around 10 to 12 surrounding homes were also affected by the blast. Yoo denied having any thoughts of suicide or prior depression, while referencing a suicide note that he claimed he never wrote but hospital records said he left for his wife. Anyone with digital media from this area, including but not limited to videos and photos, please use this link to securely share them with investigators.
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