Police officers, members of the New York City bomb squad; firefighters; ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) agents; FBI personnel, and military explosives experts from across the country gathered at NAVAIR China Lake recently as part of the FBI Large Vehicle Bomb Post Blast Crime Scene School.
"We have a good rapport with the people at China Lake," FBI Special Agent Miles said. This was the 40th class and the 11th held at China Lake. "We can do larger detonations here. The relatively pristine range allows students to identify parts of the vehicle and the TPU [the time power unit that initiates the bomb in a real terrorist setup] after the explosion. Our school benefits from the experience of Jess [Fortney, Track Operations head, SNORT] and his crew in handling large amounts of explosives. They help us all around. Whatever we need, they make it happen. It's very easy for us to get business done here," he added.
Filling a gap in bomb investigation training, it's now an FBI sanctioned school, sponsoring investigators from across the nation. Leaders of the school Miles and Gomez cover topics such as management of a large bomb crime scene, team configurations, explosive physics, post blast injuries, evidence collection, contamination avoidance, chain of custody, residue analysis, aircraft bombings, Oklahoma City bomb briefing and forensics case studies. Miles said less than 100 people in the United States have had hands-on experience in reconstructing such a large vehicle bomb.
"This school is as close to reality as it gets," explained Jim Norman, retired FBI special agent. Norman was the lead investigator in the Oklahoma City bombing and is now an instructor for this rigorous four-day class. "These new investigators need to be aware of the situations they'll face working on a case like this," Norman said.
Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, Ronald Smalstig, has been an instructor with the school since 1989. "The goal is to get into the courtroom with evidence that will convict the perpetrators making these bombs." Smalstig accentuates the value of proper evidence collection, documentation and analysis, "because this is what will be attacked in the courtroom." The task is daunting - this crime scene covered 75 acres.
Captain Tom Israel of Georgia's Clayton County Police Department was the class incident commander. "This class gave me a new perspective," he said. "The most significant thing I'm taking from this class is from a command standpoint - such as chain of command and crime scene management. This training will benefit the entire nation."
Contact: Doris Lance, 760-939-4587