A bomb went off outside the Colorado Springs chapter of the NAACP (NationalAssociation for the Advancement of Colored People) in mid-January. Nobody was harmed by the attempt, which detonated outside the doors of the NAACP building at 10:45 am, leaving the building and all adjacent structures undamaged.
The initial report called in an explosion outside the barbershop, but updates tying the explosion to the civil rights advocacy organization drew the FBI into the matter. No motive has yet been described nor a subject found for the attack; the most likely subject has been described in an FBI sketch as a balding, middle-aged, heavyset Caucasian man who sped away from the scene in a white pickup truck.
Local authorities have warned against reading too much ambiguity into the incident, suggesting that it would be “naïve” to suppose the attack was not a hate crime. Local chapter president Henry Allen Jr. told the Colorado Springs Gazette, “I don’t think the FBI would spend this amount of manpower and resources if they didn’t think there was a credible threat from the device. I would love to think there was no one who would want to damage this building.”
The landlord of the NAACP building and the next door barbershop, Gene Southerland, declined to comment, telling the Gazette, “I don’t have any time for this nonsense,” and added, “everybody loves me.”
Likewise, the FBI special agent in charge of the investigation said at a subsequent press conference, “I’m not going to be naive, I know what the NAACP means to some extremists in this country.” The current reward for the described suspect is $10,000.
