Man charged with attempted murder for bombing California courthouse

A Santa Maria, California, man accused of setting off a homemade bomb at the town’s Superior Court of California courthouse Wednesday was arrested and charged with attempted murder.

Suspect Nathaniel McGuire, 20, threw a bag toward a screening station near the arraignment room at the courthouse at 8:48 a.m., soon after entering the building, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said in a release.

The bag then exploded, wounding five victims. Four were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, including burns, while the remaining victim went alone to for care. All five were treated and released.

Mr. McGuire has been charged with attempted murder, attempted murder with an explosive device and manufacturing an explosive device, the sheriff’s office said. Detectives are also working with Santa Barbara fire officials to determine if Mr. McGuire has any connection to a spate of recent arsons.

Witnesses at the court at the time of the blast remain rattled.

“I tried to relax, but I can't. I just keep replaying it over and over in my head. All of a sudden you see the blast, and the boom, and then the smoke. It's just — it was scary. It was scary,” Andrea Castaneda, a courthouse worker who was close to the blast, told San Luis Obispo NBC affiliate KSBY.

Adrian Paris, who was in a courtroom at the time, told the station, “There was a loud explosion noise — loud boom, singular. And the courtroom sort of stopped for the moment. And we started hearing chatter over the bailiff's walkie-talkie and we were all rushed out of the courtroom.”

Mr. McGuire was apprehended trying to get into his car outside the courthouse by court security, California Highway Patrol officers and a sheriff’s deputy. He was not injured and was wearing body armor underneath his clothing.

SBCSO detectives allege that Mr. McGuire’s motive for making and detonating the bomb relates to a July 28 firearms charge. He was accused of having a concealed and loaded revolver that was not registered as his, and he was scheduled for arraignment on those charges Wednesday.

“[We] believe this to be a local incident committed by a local individual, with a local grievance stemming from his arrest. We are not absolutely ruling out that there is something larger at play, but at this time we believe this is a local matter that has been safely resolved and there are no outstanding community safety concerns,” Santa Barbara County Undersheriff Craig Bonner said.

The courthouse was closed after the incident and will reopen Monday. A number of nearby Santa Maria city government buildings were also shut down Wednesday, but they reopened Thursday.