Bottle bomb injures adult outside Redmond school; district closes 2 schools, locks down 1

REDMOND -- Parents are shaken after a bottle bomb exploded outside a Redmond elementary school Monday morning.

It happened just minutes after school buses dropped off kids. No children were injured.

Cops said the device was a plastic bottle filled with a low-level acid – something like a common household cleaner. It exploded near two bus drivers; one was sent to a hospital to be checked out.



The incident happened early Monday morning before classes started at Redmond's Emily Dickinson Elementary School, which meant there were few kids around.

Parents worried it could have turned out much worse.

“It was scary knowing that there was an explosion in the parking lot,” said parent Shelly Clark.

Worried parents rushed to Emily Dickinson, hoping to bring comfort to their students.

“We were just told there was a suspicious object on the elementary school property and for precaution sake they were going to take them over,” said parent Erin McDaniel.

Nearby Evergreen Middle School was placed on a modified lockdown. It’s also where moms and dads were told to pick up their kids.

“Knowing that the Marysville-Pilchuck High School, which had something happened to them a couple weeks ago, that was scary and knowing about this, I hope everybody’s OK” said Clark.

The explosion happened in a parking lot at Emily Dickinson Elementary, where school buses had just dropped off kids at the middle school. District officials said the buses were parked and waiting for the next route.

“One of the drivers got out of the bus, was walking towards the other bus and some kind of explosive device went off,” said Kathryn Reith, of the Lake Washington School District.

Some kids were inside Dickinson when the blast happened but officials said they were nowhere near the explosion.

Other students were en route to Dickinson when the district decided to cancel classes at both Dickinson and at nearby Explorer Elementary.

The blast has shaken parents and neighbors.

“We’ve had bears here, we’ve had cougars here, and we’re able to cope with that,” said neighbor Nancy Everhardt. “This is getting a little to close, a little bit too close.”

A bomb squad scoured the campuses looking for more devices but nothing was found.

Classes at both Dickinson and Explorer are scheduled to resume Tuesday.