'Stay Cool' In Custody After Bombing Spree: Cops
'Blowing the world up' -- among desires on MySpace
By GENE CUBBISON
Updated 7:39 PM PST, Mon, Feb 8, 2010
Details are emerging about a suspect in a firebombing spree across San Diego over the weekend that led to a police chase and arrest in Riverside County.
Edward Charles Batties, 26, is facing a world of heat after what authorities said was a 36-hour stretch of arson and other crimes.
"Nothing jumps out at anybody at this point in time as to the direct motivation for the attacks," Maurice Luque, San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman said in an interview on Monday. "The investigators are taking a look at all possibilities, following up a number of leads that have been called in to them."
However, Batties may have hinted at a motive more than two years ago. A MySpace account that apparently hasn't been tended to since late 2007 refers to Batties as "Stay Cool' and cites playing baseball and football at Kearny High. It lists, among his desires: "blowing the world up."
Batties was taken into custory on northbound I-15 in Temecula early Sunday morning when his white Ford SUV ran over spike strips that flattened its tires and ended a high-speed chase. Authorities said Batties was throwing gas cans and Molotov cocktails out the window as he tried to get away from officers who responded to a report of a car burglary in Del Mar Heights.
On Friday and Saturday, a series of five firebombs went off -- two of them in City Heights, at a police substation and middle school, neither causing much damage. A third was thrown at a pickup truck parked in a lot at Bonita Cover on Mission Bay, destroying the vehicle. Two others were tossed in Serra Mesa, at another police substation and a nearby home, where a window was broken.
Batties was booked on suspicion of arson, possessing a destructive device, evading police and burglary. His bail was set at $50,000.
Prosecutors said they believe that Batties will be arraigned on Wednesday.
First Published: Feb 8, 2010 3:43 PM PST
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