THE suspect who died in a massive home explosion made alarming social media posts before he began shooting flares into his neighborhood.
Shocking video showed the moment James Yoo’s property in Arlington, Virginia, rocked the neighborhood and exploded into a huge fireball on Monday evening.
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Arlington police say Yoo, 56, died in his duplex blast as cops were moments away from executing a search warrant.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Arlington County Police Chief Andy Penn detailed how police engaged in an hours-long standoff with Yoo at around 4:45 pm and continued until the moment of the explosion.
Penn revealed human remains, believed to belong to Yoo, were recovered at the blast site.
The police chief also said investigators were aware of Yoo’s concerning social media posts.
A comb through Yoo’s social media accounts shows he referred to his ex-wife as a “witch” and posted the anti-America slogan “#F—America,” according to Fox News.
A YouTube page believed to be Yoo’s suggested he was a former head of information and physical security or an international telecommunications company.
“I gave THEM / Y’ALL every opportunity to ‘do the right thing’ and all I see is America’s hypocrisy, corruption, fraud, conspiracy,” the bio read, Fox News reported.
In a December 1 LinkedIn post, Yoo ranted about his neighbor’s “activity,” writing: “This is how White people operate and have the luxury of outnumbering all other ‘races’ by almost 7 to 1 in ‘Merica,” the outlet reported.
In another post from late October, he claimed that he was being targeted with “hateful messaging” and made reference to assassination.
HORROR BLAST
A video shared on social media showed the large explosion that demolished the home and sent flames shooting high into the air.
Cops were first called to the Bluemont neighborhood address on Monday after neighbors reported that a man, later identified as Yoo, fired a pyrotechnic from a flare gun.
After a SWAT team arrived to execute the search warrant, the suspect fired several more flares at officers outside.
As officers prepared to enter the property, the duplex exploded just before 8:30 pm, with a video showing a fireball erupting from the site.
A massive boom was heard miles away, and the power was knocked out in the surrounding neighborhood as firefighters rushed to extinguish the blaze.
Fire responders had control of the fire but were still battling the flames late into the night.
Three police officers were injured in the blast, Penn confirmed on Tuesday.
“I actually thought a plane exploded,” said Carla Rodriguez, who lives two miles from the site of the explosion.
Another neighbor shared the fate of a nearby house after the fire.
“I think it blew up the entire duplex,” a neighbor told ARL Now.
“I’m sure the family next door was evacuated before it blew up, but they lost their home.”
A witness described seeing a police SWAT team try to talk Yoo out of the home before the explosion.
Cops said they tried to contact the suspect via a telephone and loudspeakers.
“[The suspect] shot flares at the beginning, he was not shooting flares near the end,” the witness told local Fox affiliate WTTG.
“[Cops] starting returning fire with a nonlethal weapon […] blasting out the windows a little bit.
“They kept trying to yell to him. He sounded like he was trying to say something back but they were like, ‘Look we can’t hear you. Please come out. Please come out. You won’t get hurt.'”
“[Cops] were driving forward to the window and that’s when the whole place went up.”`
Another local shared that she saw flames coming from the home but assumed they were “goofing off on an afternoon,” according to NBC affiliate WRC-TV.
“But then after about 20 of them, I start to think, ‘This is concerning. Maybe somebody should call the police,'” she said.
“There was a police unit that was going down the street and then took a turn around the corner down to the cul-de-sac where he was, and it looked like they gave him a talking to.”
Virginia State Representative Don Beyer said that he was monitoring the situation in Arlington.
“This is very, very scary, and my profound thanks go out to first responders working to secure the area and keep everyone safe,” he wrote.
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