Bomb Prank Suspect to Face Judge
Elphbert Laforteza spoke to reporters at his home on Friday.
A teen accused of setting off a series of bottle bombs on his last day of high school will appear in court Thursday for his arraignment on a series of felony charges.
On Friday, local high school student Elphbert Laforteza apologized to everyone he let down.
“I feel like I’ve let down everybody who has been really close to me: my parents, who have been there through everything, all my friends, the student body that has looked up to me and, especially, my teachers, who have done nothing but help me, teach me everything that they could,” Laforteza said.
On Monday, prosecutors filed charges against the teen. Laforteza faces charges of possession of a destructive device in a public area (a potential sentence of six years), possession of the ingredients to make a destructive device (four years) and possession of a destructive device (three years).
Several plastic bottles containing some type of acid and another unidentified substance were set in trash cans a few feet from where students were having lunch last Friday at San Ysidro High School. Six of the bottles exploded. No one was hurt, but the bombs were big enough to have hurt or possibly killed someone, investigators said.
No one was hurt.
Laforteza called it a prank gone wrong. Because of what happened, he was not allowed to walk during his school's graduation ceremony last week.
