Officers find suspicious tube capped with fuse during traffic stop in Hurricane

Composite image with stock photo by Carlballou/iStock/Getty Images Plus; overlay stock photo | Photo by Cody Blowers, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — What began as a traffic stop for a moving violation in Hurricane turned into a call to the bomb squad after officers found a clear tube filled with black powder and a fuse coming out of the top.

2020 file photo for illustrative purposes only of Hurricane Police officers on state Route 9 and North 2600 West, Hurricane, Utah, Sept. 23, 2020 | Photo by Cody Blowers, St. George News

A patrol officer noticed on Thursday a Ford pickup heading south on 200 West in Hurricane with a broken brake light that continued towards the intersection of 600 North where the driver failed to make a complete stop shortly after 8 p.m.

The officer stopped the truck and while speaking to the driver, 38-year-old Brittany Christine Williams, the officer noticed the motorist “was trembling and appeared to be nervous,” according to charging documents filed with the court.

While collecting the driver’s information, she reportedly told the officer there was an active warrant for her arrest, which was confirmed through a background check that revealed it was issued out of Iron County on a retail theft case. Officers also found a number of theft and drug convictions during the records check and Williams was arrested on the warrant and placed in the back of a patrol car.

The officer requested a K-9 unit to assist based on the suspect’s prior drug convictions, and during a free air sniff around the vehicle, the animal indicated the possible presence of narcotics and the truck was searched.

Inside the center console, officers recovered a clear tube containing a black powdery substance. The tube was sealed with an orange cap that had a small hole in the center of it that also had what appeared to be a green fuse that was a foot long poking out of the small hole.

The officer also noted the components, when combined, appeared to be an “improvised explosive device” that “no reasonable person should possess in the center console of a vehicle,” as noted in the report.

Officers reached out to the Washington County Bomb Squad, which identified the powder as smokeless gun powder, and a bomb technician was sent to the scene.

The technician removed the powder from the tube and when he lit it, the report states, the powder burned rapidly with what was described as “a low flashing point.”

Officers also recovered a glass pipe with a white residue on it, as well as two syringes that contained a clear liquid. Both the residue and the liquid later tested positive for methamphetamine.

2019 file photo for illustrative purposes only of a Washington County Bomb Squad technician on 1302 S. 320 East in St. George, Utah, March 7, 2019 | Photo by Andrew Pinckney, St. George News

Williams told officers the tube did not belong to her but said her boyfriend often drives her truck. She went on to explain that recently, her boyfriend told her he had found something by a storage unit, but said she was not sure if the device was one of the items he was referring to.

When officers asked the boyfriend about the device, he denied the item was his and then stated he did not want to talk to the police.

Williams was transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility and was booked into jail on the warrant.

On Friday, she was formally charged with a second-degree felony charge of recklessness – incendiary device and possession of a controlled substance – a charge that was enhanced to a third-degree felony based on prior drug convictions. She also faces possession of paraphernalia, a misdemeanor.

The suspect is scheduled to make an initial appearance in 5th District Court on Monday.

This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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