CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The sound of an explosion in Kanawha City caught the attention of two Charleston Police officers on a routine patrol of the neighborhood early Thursday morning.
“They were driving by the 6500 block of MacCorkle Avenue and heard the loud explosion in a dumpster and saw a suspect running away,” said Charleston Police Chief Steve Cooper on 580-Live with Mayor Danny Jones on 580 WCHS Radio. “They got out and chased him to his house and they couldn’t get in, so we had to call the SWAT team to enter the home.”
Once inside, police arrested Michael Jones of Charleston on charges of criminal use of a destructive device and illegal possession of a firearm.
“He had a lot of really high-powered fireworks,” said Cooper. “There were no illegal explosives, but he was charged because that’s an improper way to use those things obviously.”
The legal firework used in the explosion was an M-1000.
Jones is lodged in the South Central Regional Jail. Nobody was injured in the incident.