A Massachusetts high school is on high alert after a homemade explosive device attached to the school principal’s car blew up outside of his home Thursday, police and neighbors said.
Police in Blackstone said officers responded to a home at about 6:15 p.m. on Lakeshore Drive and were met by the homeowner who said he heard a loud bang that shook his house before finding extensive damage to his vehicle.
Police sources told The Post that an explosive device resembling a pipe bomb was placed inside the grill of a silver Jeep, causing extensive damage to the vehicle’s engine block, grill and radiator. No injuries were reported.
Additional police officers were deployed Friday at Bellingham High School, according to the school district’s Facebook page.
“The investigation certainly indicates that this was not a random act of violence,” John Guilfoil, a Blackstone police spokesman, told The Post.
Guilfoil declined to identify the victim, but the principal of Bellingham High School, Lucas Giguere, is listed in town assessing records as the owner of 152 Lakeshore Drive, where a damaged Jeep remained outside the home as of early Friday, the Boston Globe reports.
A neighbor of Giguere’s told the newspaper that the explosion was loud enough to get him to walk across the street to check out what happened as Giguere stood in the driveway inspecting the damage.
“He was terrified because of what has just happened to his vehicle,” neighbor Maurice Dubeau said. “He said he never expected anyone would do that to this vehicle. He was very controlled and he immediately called the police.”
Giguere told Dubeu who he suspected to be behind the homemade explosive, but Dubeau declined to elaborate.
“He should be the one delivering the news,” Dubeau told the Globe. “He has his suspects.”
Dubeau, a veteran who served in Korea, said the explosive was a “good noisy bomb” that sounded similar to a powerful firecracker.
Officials from Bellingham High School and Bellingham Public Schools declined to comment Friday, but district officials acknowledged on Facebook that additional police officers were at the high school following Thursday’s incident.
“The safety of students and staff is our number one priority,” district officials said.
The Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting in the ongoing investigation, police said.