Nail-packed bomb detonated at Alabama apartment complex, damaging building but injuring no one

Published 9:13 pm Wednesday, October 6, 2021

An explosive packed with nails went off early Wednesday at an affordable housing complex, injuring no one but causing extensive damage to a building, officials said.

Police Chief Kenta Fulford and interim Fire Chief Gabriel Sharpe said a suspect threw a makeshift device into a residence at Rangedale Apartments around 3:30 a.m., causing a fire, The Selma Times-Journal reported. Video showed investigators working around the front of a single-story unit at the development, which is run by the Selma Housing Authority.

The case was under investigation, but District Attorney Michael Jackson said it was clear the act was intentional and involved a “bomb-like device” containing nails. A police officer heard the explosion from about a mile away, he said.

“I don’t know if someone had a beef with the manager or a resident or what,” he said.

The attack came two weeks after a still-unidentified shooter fired multiple shots into the home of the Dallas County school superintendent, injuring no one. Earlier this year, a city police officer eating lunch inside an apartment at another complex was fatally shot from outside; a teenager was charged in that slaying.

There’s no indication the cases are connected, Jackson said, but “there’s a lot of weird stuff going on in Selma.”