Officers said they responded to a residence on the 2900 block of Rockford Avenue shortly after 9 a.m. yesterday after a person was reported to have died from “apparent natural causes.” However, the situation escalated after police discovered what appeared to be military explosives.
The Stockton police bomb squad rushed to the scene and decided to evacuate about 20 homes in the area “out of an abundance of caution.”
The Red Cross opened an evacuation center for any affected residents based at the Arnold Rue Community Center, located in the 5700 block of Lorraine Avenue, authorities said in a Facebook post.
Officer Joe Silva, a spokesperson for the Stockton Police Department, told The Record, a daily newspaper in the region, the victim was a 70-year-old man. He has not been named by officials.
“During the initial stages of the investigation, officers located what they believed to be numerous types of possible military explosives inside the house,” Silva said. “So at that point the number one safety concern is to make sure everybody’s out of the house and call out our bomb squad.”
Experts from the Travis Air Force Base in Solano County were contacted after it was determined the devices appeared to be military. It remains unclear how many items were actually found, but Silva told The Record yesterday the home contained “hundreds and hundreds” of them.
“Since there are so many of them, [investigators] had to leave this evening and they’ll be back tomorrow morning with more personnel,” he said. “You have to look at each device, determine if it’s live or not, then figure out exactly how you’re going to move it out of the residence.”
The sheer number of devices will likely extend the length of the investigation, which was expected to be taking place throughout today and possibly over the weekend, police said.
It remains unclear if the 70-year-old had a military background, Fox40 reported. The probe will also seek to find out if the victim was living alone at the Rockford Avenue address.
On social media yesterday, the Stockton Police Department confirmed there was an “active bomb callout” in the area and said several street closures would be in place “until further notice.”
They included: 2950 Hammer Ln Fr - Richland Way/Hammer Ln, Rockford Ave/Dorchester Way, Rockford Ave/Stueben Way and Rockford Ave/Richland Wy, law enforcement said.
While the victim remains unnamed, a resident who was evacuated from his home, Dale Boyd, described him as a friendly man who had “never caused a problem,” The Record reported.
The investigation continues.
