Pipe bomb found in detained Fort Polk soldier's apartment

An active-duty soldier is in the custody of Fort Polk officials after an explosion and fire Wednesday on land next to the Army post, according to authorities.

The soldier, who has not been identified, was located at the scene of the explosion on Kisatchie National Forest land and brought back to the post for questioning, Vernon Parish Sheriff Sam Craft said.

Soon after, military authorities started investigating the soldier's vehicle near the post's Education Center and Library, finding chlorine and what appeared to be bomb-making materials, Craft said.

Kim Reischling, a spokeswoman for the post, said responders who searched the vehicle were taken to Bayne-Jones Army Community Hospital to be medically evaluated.

"It's a precaution that we take," Reischling told The Town Talk. "The soldiers were decontaminated on site, but later were brought to the hospital to be evaluated and they were released from there."

Craft said the solider, after being detained on post, was not cooperating and asked for an attorney.

The apartment complex where the solider lived — about eight miles from Fort Polk — was evacuated around 4 p.m. and a Louisiana State Police hazardous materials team was called to investigate the soldier's apartment.

No bomb-making materials were found during the initial search and about 100 residents of the Mona Lisa apartments and surrounding areas on Clarence Avenue in New Llano were allowed back into their homes around 9:30 p.m. after many stood on the roads nearby the complex for nearly six hours.

Around midnight Wednesday, New Llano Police Chief Danny Hunt confirmed that during a second search of the soldier's apartment, a pipe bomb and other suspicious materials were located there. Hunt said an explosive ordnance disposal team from Fort Polk, and members of Louisiana State Police and the FBI removed the pipe bomb from the apartment and detonated it in the wooded area beside the complex.

Victor Medina, a five-year tenant of Mona Lisa apartments, was at work in Sulphur that night when the complex was evacuated. He said Thursday afternoon when he got home was the first time he had heard of the incident, but even then was unaware that the apartment in question — apartment M4, according to Craft — was the room across the hall from him.

"They found a bomb in that room?" he questioned, pointing across the hall. "Oh, wow."

Medina said he knew his neighbor was a soldier, but explained that many tenants in the complex are, "so it's something I got used to."

"I see people every now and then but people are always in and out of here moving, so I don't really know them," he said. "I don't feel unsafe right now living here. I've been here many years and I was at work when this happened, so that's good, but I'm glad everyone is safe."

Craft said criminal investigators from Fort Polk and the FBI are handling the investigation.