Pipe Bomb Accidentally Brought Inside Police Building

Officers discovered the bomb in a garbage bag they confiscated earlier in the day.

Philadelphia police evacuated the 35th District’s headquarters Saturday night after officers unknowingly brought a pipe bomb into the building.

The pipe bomb, along with an AK-47, was located in a garbage bag that police had confiscated from a property on Torresdale Avenue near Benner Street in Northeast Philly about 12:30 p.m., when they took Brian Horter into custody on weapons violations charges.

Horter, 31, was wanted by the state Attorney General’s Gun Violence Task Force. He was taken to Northwest Detectives — which is housed in the same building as the 35th — to be processed. And that’s when investigators discovered the explosive device.

Police Chief Inspector Joseph Sullivan said the pipe bomb was an inch in diameter and three inches long. “It’s our belief it would have functioned as designed,” he said. “It was stable in its form, so it’s wasn’t like it was going to go off if it was shaken.”

Members of the Police Department’s Bomb Squad removed the device from the 35th’s headquarters at Broad and Champlost Avenue and detonated at the squad’s headquarters in the Northeast. Sullivan said the Police Department will forward any information it discovers on Horter.

He will likely face a weapons of mass destruction charge for the pipe bomb, Sullivan said.

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