Palm Springs man finds possible bomb component
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (NBC, KYMA, KECY) - A Palm Springs man discovers a potential bomb component near a blast site.
Palm Springs resident Dwain Wall was stopped at a red light at Tacheva and Palm Canyon Drive when the violent blast blew his car backwards.
"I didnt know what it was. It was just white smoke and debris going everywhere," Wall shared.
With no first responders in sight, Wall jumped from his car and began a futile search for survivors.
"It was just me and another guy and right away it was just bodies. Body parts, arms, things like that," Wall added.
While Wall found no one he could help, he did find himself in the middle of a huge debris field: Broken glass, pieces of a car blown apart, and one more charred item that could prove critical in this investigation.
Wall showed an NBC affiliate in Palm Springs the device he found: The BernzOmatic T58000, described online as torch used for cooking and construction.
Digging deeper, the NBC affiliate in Palm Springs discovered stark warnings about the potential misuse of the BernzOmatic T58000 torch in the construction of explosives devices, calling it a serious matter.
After talking exclusively with the NBC affiliate in Palm Springs, Wall turned the device over to authorities who addressed it.
As the investigation continues, survivors who feared for their lives are speaking out.
"The glass started falling down and some of the people at our table, the glass was right next to their head. All the windows almost blew out at Dennys," said Pete Abraham, a blast survivor.
The Abraham family, visiting from Moreno Valley, was at Denny's when huge windows blew into the restaurant.
"It was super loud and everything blew up in front of you," Abraham detailed.
They were okay, but said other diners around them were bleeding from shards of glass. Now, the Abrahams, like so many others in the Palm Springs community, have one main question: Why?
"People that do stuff like this or things like this you've got to realize you might be doing it for a cause or reason thats good. You're not helping anybody. You're killing innocent people and the reality is, this type of thing should not be happening," Abraham expressed.
