While SFPD will say only that at 7:10 Wednesday morning, “a citizen found a suspected explosive device at bottom of public steps. The suspected device was inspected and removed,” saying that they have “no further details to report,” locals tell a much more exciting tale.
Appeal contributor Violet Blue says that at 10 AM (note that that’s nearly 3 hours after when SFPD says the report was made) she received notification from Alert SF that there was a street closure on 18th and Ord.
That’s right around the same time that Sha Sha Chu reported, via Twitter, that she “Stepped outside this morning to see SF Bomb Squad. Someone reported a suspicious package @ 18th and Market, so they blowed it up. Whee!”
According to a witness interviewed by Blue, “someone had dropped a package (a bomb) over the wall there onto Market Street. It did not explode and sat there for a bit. Drivers going by in the morning hours saw it and called the police. When they got there (SFPD) called the bomb squad and witnesses on the scene overheard that it was a bomb, were told to get out of the area, and described it as a package of ammunition wrapped in nails.”
Blue said that witnesses said that “the bomb squad detonated it around 10 am, there was a loud boom. No one was close enough to see how they detonated it.”
Though SFPD says they don’t have much more to share, we’re working to confirm details of this. Know anything? Let’s hear it.
Update: Looks like SFPD won’t tell SF Weekly anything, either.