FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – A Milford man who had pipe bombs in the trunk of his car and bomb-making materials inside his home – and threatened to blow up his neighbor’s home – plans to plead guilty to federal felony charges as part of a deal with prosecutors.
An attorney for 36-year-old Bradly A. Reid filed paperwork Tuesday in U.S. District Court showing his client plans to plead guilty to a count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and a count of unlawful possession of an unregistered firearm.
Bradley had been pulled over by a LaGrange Police officer in May under the influence of drugs with a pistol he was not allowed to have in the trunk of his car as well as two homemade pipe bombs, according to court documents.
A further search of his home turned up more bombmaking materials, court documents said.
In exchange for his plea, prosecutors plan to drop an additional charge of being under the influence of drugs with a firearm and recommend he receive less than the 20-year total maximum prison sentence the counts carry, according to court documents.
On May 2, Reid was driving a car while a man riding in the front passenger seat had an outstanding warrant in Elkhart County, court documents said. The officer who pulled them over said in court documents he could smell the odor of marijuana coming from the car.
A search of the car turned up marijuana, but in the trunk officers also found two shotguns – both of them Remington 12-gauges – plus shotgun shells, ammunition for a .40-caliber pistol and shooting targets, court documents said.
Officers also found a galvanized steel pipe with two end caps and a green fuse coming from the one of those caps as well as a heavily taped cylindrical object with plastic zip ties and another green fuse.
Reid and his passenger were taken to LaGrange County Jail. Officers at the scene called the Fort Wayne Police’s bomb squad. A bomb technician determined that both devices were pipe bombs, and that one was filled with pistol ammunition and metal BBs, according to court documents.
“The addition of metal to the interior of the device is to create injury or death to an individual as those items become shrapnel when the device explodes,” an ATF agent wrote in court documents.
Both bombs appeared to be homemade, as well.
While at jail, Reid admitted to possessing at least one of the shotguns. He at first denied knowing anything about the plastic case. When asked if police would find his fingerprints or DNA on the case, Reid at first told them he did not understand the question.
When asked again, Reid shook his head up and down as if saying yes, according to court documents, and then asked for a lawyer.
Agents with the ATF along with officers from the Fort Wayne, Elkhart and LaGrange police departments then searched Reid’s home in Milford.
During the search, they found zip ties that were already put together in a circular fashion like those found on the other bombs, a binary explosive used for firearms practice but also popular in the making of improvised explosive devices, smokeless powder that’s typically used as filler in pipe bombs and a length of green fuse.
Reid’s girlfriend was at the home and told investigators he owned two shotguns and a pistol. The shotguns she described matched the ones found in the trunk of the car he was driving, court documents said. When shown a photo of the plastic case officers found, she said she recognized that as belonging to Reid.
She also told them Reid has threatened to “blow up” the house of people that owe him money and described him as a daily user of methamphetamine, court documents said.
Reid is scheduled to go before a federal judge next month where she will either reject or accept the plea agreement, according to court records.
