,WWLP) – Two suspects have been charged in connection with with a blast last weekend on the Harvard Medical School (HMS) campus.
Logan David Patterson, 18, and Dominic Frank Cardoza, 20, were arrested Tuesday and each charged with conspiracy to cause harm by means of fire or explosive.
According to charging documents, at approximately 2:23 a.m. EDT on Saturday, two suspects were seen on surveillance video at Huntington Avenue and Longwood Avenue in Boston walking toward the HMS campus. The pair, wearing face coverings and dark-coloured clothing, were reportedly lighting Roman candle fireworks.
The suspects reportedly climbed a chain-link fence in the construction area surrounding the Goldenson Building before climbing scaffolding built next to the building to reach the roof. Campus police received a fire alarm alert at approximately 2:45 a.m. from an explosion on the fourth floor of the Goldenson Building, which houses a research laboratory within the school’s neurobiology department.
The explosive – believed to be a large, commercial firework – was determined by investigators to have been detonated within a wooden locker in the research laboratory.
During a press conference to announce the arrests on Tuesday, FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Ted Dokes called the explosion an “extremely dangerous act that would have resulted in casualties if the Goldenson Building had been occupied at the time.”
Police say security footage cameras captured the suspects going to the fifth floor of the building between 2:45 and 2:50 a.m. before fleeing in the opposite direction through a first-floor emergency door. There were no casualties in the explosion.
“This explosive device had the potential to cause significant injury to anyone nearby,” Docs said. “Only by good fortune and the quick response of first responders, no lives were lost, no one was injured and property damage was limited.”
Cardoza, of Bourne, was reportedly caught by vigilantes sitting on a bench, taking off his pants and putting them in a nearby trash can.
Close surveillance at Wentworth Institute of Technology reportedly caught Patterson, of Plymouth, running between buildings intermittently and trying to enter a residential complex building before being spotted by a passerby.
Investigators say Patterson left the building around 3:40 a.m. to meet Cardoza and a third man. The trio allegedly tried to enter another residential building before heading toward the Massachusetts College of Art and Design campus.
Authorities say Patterson could be seen taking off his sweatpants and sweatshirt as the three suspects walked along Huntington Avenue. Witnesses later told investigators that Patterson and Cardoza had attended Halloween social events at Wentworth College.
The suspects will appear in federal court in Boston on Tuesday.
“Planting an explosive device inside a locker at an institution dedicated to higher education is not a harmless college prank,” Docs said. “It’s selfish, it’s short-sighted and it’s a federal crime.”
Law enforcement continues to investigate the incident and explosives analysis is underway.
