| Two law enforcement officers killed in a bank bombing last week believed the device was a hoax and were trying to open it when it exploded, according to court documents released on Tuesday. A probable cause statement in the case of bombing suspect Joshua Turnidge says a state trooper inspected and X-rayed a green metal box found Friday outside the West Coast Bank building in Woodburn. The document says Oregon State Police Senior Trooper William Hakim, a bomb disposal technician, was confident it was a hoax device, so he took it inside. The statement says a bank employee saw Hakim trying to open it while Woodburn Capt. Tom Tennant held it, and then it exploded. Hakim and Tennant were killed. Woodburn Police Chief Scott Russell was critically injured — he has lost his right leg from the knee down and his left leg was mutilated, according to the statement. The bank employee was treated at Salem Hospital and released. According to the statement, at 10:19 a.m. Friday a man called in a bomb threat to the Wells Fargo Bank in Woodburn, which is close to the West Coast Bank branch. The man said "if 'they' didn't leave the building, all of them would die," the court document states. |
