The Maine State Police SWAT Team and Portland Bomb Squad responded to execute a high-risk search warrant in South Portland on Wednesday and arrested a man on explosive charges.
The South Portland Police Department responded with the SWAT team to execute a search warrant at 65 Florence Street, a single-family home.
During the warrant execution, detectives allegedly discovered black powder and a suspicious, unidentified substance that prompted them to contact the Portland Bomb Squad and the South Portland Fire Department.
As authorities evaluated the substances, the surrounding homes were evacuated as a precaution.
Police arrested John Flumerfelt, 40, the home’s only resident, and charged him with criminal use of explosives, with additional charges related to firearm offenses under investigation.
He was transported to the Cumberland County Jail.
Police have since determined that there is no ongoing threat to the community, and surrounding residents were allowed to return to their homes.
It is not clear from the press release why the warrant was initially secured or how it was assessed to be a high-risk warrant prior to its execution.
Last I heard, you could buy black powder at WalMart — doesn’t the State still have a “black powder” deer season?
There is, of course, the question of how much black powder he had, if he had a couple tons of it, there’d be an issue — but otherwise…
And as to the other “unknown, white substance“, there’s a lot of people who have Epson salt around this time of year — supposedly, tomatoes grow better if you plant them with it. And I can think of a dozen other harmless, white substances, including sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cornstarch. and.Plaster of Paris.
Calling the bomb squad — which I presume is also trained in HazMat response protocols (I hope) — is it responsible thing to do. Telling everybody that somebody has some black powder in the house and providing a picture of the person, not so much.
And as the Maine Wire running the person’s name and photo, that’s irresponsible.
Forget the possibility that he may be innocent — it’s not illegal to have black powder, and you have to know what the “white substance“ actually is before you can say possessing that was illegal.
Forget the possibility that he may be innocent, and assume the possibility that he is guilty. Guilty of everything possible, including the Kennedy assassinations. And he then hires an intrepid lawyer, who claims that pre-trial publicity denied him a fair trial.
The end result being that a guilty man walks free. Is that what we want to happen?
he is probably a conservative with a hand gun and 100 rounds of 9mm
@Dr.Ed, take a breath. I heard the same information reported on the wgan radio news and my reaction was similar to yours. I don’t watch local TV news so not sure if his picture was shown but expect it was. Regardless, it happened and was reported here, which shouldn’t be described as irresponsible.