Mitchell Oakes Arrested After Attempted Car Bombing In Front Of Franklin, Tennessee Nursing Home
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation have announced that a man who had been wanted in connection to the bombing attempt of a woman’s car outside of her job at a senior care facility in Franklin, Tennessee on Saturday has been arrested. The authorities were then forced to detonate the car bomb inside of the woman’s car.
The Franklin police began seeking 41-year-old Mitchell Hunter Oakes after he was accused of putting a highly dangerous and active explosive device inside of the vehicle of an employee of the nursing home, NHC Cool Springs at 211 Cool Springs Boulevard. The Tennessean wrote that on Sunday morning at approximately 9 a.m., the agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives took Oakes into custody at a home in Bledsoe County. He came with the authorities without incident.
Arrest made after improvised bomb put outside nursing home.https://t.co/pvmipQZ4Kj
— wvlt (@wvlt) September 11, 2016
After his attempt at killing the woman by planting the bomb inside of her car, the man had also been placed on the “Top 10 Most Wanted” list of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and was wanted on a myriad of state and federal charges. Mitchell Oakes had been described as 6-foot, 3 inches tall and weighed about 240 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. In addition to charges for attempted first-degree murder, the Tennessee man was also wanted for unlawful possession of an explosive device as well as for being in possession of a weapon while being a convicted felon. According to the Local Memphis Oakes also had a felony warrant out for him in the state of Virginia reportedly on an unrelated charge.
It is still unclear right now if anyone will be receiving the $7,500 reward that the police had offered in exchange for any information which would lead police to the suspect.
On Saturday, police in the city of Franklin, which is just outside of Nashville, gave a news release which identified Mitchell Oakes as the suspect in the attempted car-bombing. The device had been discovered by an employee of a nursing home who it has been said, had a prior relationship with Oakes but has not been identified. When the employee found the device, she was leaving the nursing home at the end of her shift and was just about to get into her car. She contacted the Franklin Police immediately.
In their release and plea for assistance apprehending the suspect, the police advised that he was a “convicted felon with a violent history and extensive knowledge of bomb making and weapons,” and should be “considered armed and dangerous.” A spokesman for the Franklin police, Lt. Charles Warner, said that if the car bomb had been activated, it would have proved fatal.
“The device was sophisticated and designed to do maximum harm to the intended victim, and would have hurt several others if it had detonated as intended.”
The employee was very fortunate that the car bomb, had not detonated on its own when she got into the vehicle Saturday morning. Before attempting to handle the bomb the authorities moved approximately 60 of the 200 persons who are been living in the nursing home to another part of the facility due to safety concerns. Police said that the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the FBI worked to safeguard the bomb and were later able to detonate the device in a more controlled environment. The 2 p.m. detonation did reportedly leave a large crater behind, though, as the Tennessee Highway Patrol took to its official Facebook account to announce.
The police also said that they intend to take the components of the bomb to the ATF’s lab in Atlanta to be analyzed.
The police said they do not currently have Mitchell Oakes’ booking, bond, nor court date information.
[Image via the Franklin Police Department]
