A man who allegedly planted a pipe bomb near a Kaimuki rooming house two months ago did so out of a personal grudge against one of the residents, the FBI said Wednesday.
Federal agents arrested Patrick Lopes about 8 a.m. Wednesday as he came out of his rooming house on North Pauahi Street. The street remained closed for about four hours while agents served a search warrant at Lopes’ apartment and cleared it of any explosives, said Honolulu FBI Special Agent Tom Simon.
Lopes, 45, was being held at the federal detention center and was scheduled to make an initial appearance today in U.S. District Court.
The FBI said Lopes built the bomb from materials he bought at Home Depot in Iwilei.
Court documents said Lopes believed the resident was following him and using surveillance equipment to monitor his conversations.
Lopes also believed the man had stolen money from Lopes’ safe deposit box and showed a federal agent what appeared to be a bar of gold and a wad of cash that Lopes said he was forced to carry in his backpack.
However, the resident was in Florida when Lopes allegedly planted the bomb.
The co-owner of the rooming house at 714 7th Ave. told the FBI that Lopes lived in her building from June 1994 to August 2011, but she evicted him for smoking marijuana and because of complaints by other tenants.
A resident discovered the device, described as a silver galvanized pipe with a fuse, cigarette and matchbook, near the house’s gas line on March 11. The cigarette had been lit, but apparently went out.
The Honolulu Police Department’s bomb squad robot picked up the bomb and officers rendered it safe at the department’s training academy in Waipahu. An officer with the bomb squad found the device contained a granular material that "burned violently … consistent with a propellant" in a test burn, court documents said.
Federal agents found identifying brand markings on the bomb parts and searched the major hardware and plumbing stores on Oahu for identical parts, but could find them only at Home Depot in Iwilei.
Home Depot sent the FBI a record of all 37 transactions between October and March 11 for one of the bomb parts: a galvanized nipple. Only 10 of the transactions were in cash.
Last week, the FBI received video from Home Depot of the man who used cash on Jan. 31 to buy a nipple and an end cap, identical to those used in the bomb. The man matched Lopes’ description. Another video of a man fitting Lopes’ description showed the man using cash to buy another piece allegedly used in the bomb on Feb. 6.
There is no indication that Lopes was part of a terror network, the FBI said.
He was charged with possession of an unregistered firearm for the pipe bomb and carrying an explosive during commission of a felony.
If convicted, he could face between 10 and 20 years in federal prison.
