Guns, explosives discovered in home

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Guns, explosives discovered in home

Tip from Gaithersburg resident leads police to cache

by Patricia M. Murret and Bradford Pearson | Staff Writers

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J. Adam Fenster⁄The Gazette

Crates of evidence are carried from a home in Bethesda’s Ashburton neighborhood on Tuesday afternoon.

Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of a Bethesda 18-year-old in connection with several assault rifles, ammunition and chemicals used for explosives that were removed from a home in the Ashburton neighborhood Tuesday afternoon.

Colin McKenzie-Gude was being sought last night on five counts of possession of a firearm and ammunition by a minor (legal age is 21), possession of a destructive device and possession of explosive material, said Lt. Paul Starks, director of media services for Montgomery County Police.

Starks could not confirm details about McKenzie-Gude, but a Colin McKenzie-Gude appears in online records as an air rifle competitor for St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C. St. John’s is a private Catholic school located on Military Road.

‘‘We’re still trying to flesh out a motive,” Starks said.

At about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, 10 vehicles, including a bomb squad truck, surrounded a split-level home in the 6300 block of Rockhurst Road, off Old Georgetown Road, which police said is a residence of McKenzie-Gude. Investigators were seen removing several crates, at least one marked ‘‘evidence,” from the home. At one point, a dismantled computer sat in the driveway.

Police found five assault rifles and one handgun in addition to the ammunition and explosives material, Starks said.

The county Fire Marshal Office’s bomb squad removed chemicals used for manufacturing homemade explosives, said Pete Piringer, spokesman for Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services.

Neither police nor fire officials provided details of the investigation, but said the initial tip about the cache came from a citizen to the Gaithersburg Police Department.

Gaithersburg Police Chief John King said Tuesday that the investigation involves the Bethesda location and a second location in Gaithersburg. He declined to elaborate, citing the impending investigation.

A man who answered the phone at the Bethesda house would not comment.

At about 4 p.m. Tuesday the investigators from the county and Gaithersburg police departments and the sheriff and fire marshal’s offices completed their search of the house, left the scene and refused comment.

The Ashburton neighborhood is comprised of single-family homes primarily built in the 1950s and 1960s, highlighted by ramblers and split-levels. Other than the presence of police and fire vehicles, the neighborhood was relatively quiet Tuesday afternoon.