Police say the man behind ballot box fires has metalworking experience and might plan more attacks

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The man suspected of setting fires in ballot drop boxes in Oregon and Washington state is an experienced metalworker and may be planning additional attacks, authorities said Wednesday.

Investigators believe the man who set the incendiary devices at ballot boxes in Portland, Oregon, and nearby Vancouver, Washington, had a “wealth of experience” in metal fabrication and welding, said Portland Police Bureau spokesperson Mike Benner.

The way the devices were constructed and the way they were attached to the metal drop boxes showed that expertise, Benner said.

Authorities described the suspect as a white man, age 30 to 40, who is balding or has very short hair.

Police previously said surveillance video showed the man driving a black or dark-colored 2001 to 2004 Volvo S-60. The vehicle did not have a front license plate, but it did have a rear plate with unknown letters or numbers.

The incendiary devices were marked with the message “Free Gaza,” according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.

A third device placed at a different drop box in Vancouver earlier this month also carried the words “Free Palestine” in addition to “Free Gaza,” the official said.

Investigators are trying to identify the person responsible and the motive for the suspected arson attacks, which destroyed or damaged hundreds of ballots at the drop box in Vancouver on Monday when the box’s fire suppression system didn't work as intended. Authorities are trying to figure out whether the suspect actually had pro-Palestinian views or used the message to try to create confusion, the official said.

Surveillance images captured a Volvo pulling up to a drop box in Portland just before security personnel nearby discovered a fire inside the box on Monday, Benner said. The early-morning fire was extinguished quickly thanks to the box's suppression system and a nearby security guard, police said. Just three of the ballots inside were damaged.

The ballot box in Vancouver that burned also had a fire suppression system inside, but it failed to prevent hundreds of ballots from being scorched, said Greg Kimsey, the longtime elected auditor in Clark County, Washington, which includes Vancouver.

Elections staff were able to identify 488 damaged ballots retrieved from the box, and as of Tuesday evening, 345 of those voters had contacted the county auditor's office to request a replacement ballot, the office said in a statement Wednesday. The office will mail 143 ballots to the rest of the identified voters on Thursday.

Six of the ballots were unidentifiable, and the office said the exact number of destroyed ballots wasn’t known, as some may have completely burned to ash.

Election staff on Wednesday planned to sort through the damaged ballots for information about who cast them, in the hopes that those voters can be given replacement ballots. Kimsey urged voters who dropped their ballots in the transit center box between 11 a.m. Saturday and early Monday to contact his office for a replacement ballot.

Authorities in Portland said Monday that enough material from the incendiary devices was recovered to show that the two fires were connected — and that they were connected to an Oct. 8 incendiary device at a different ballot drop box in Vancouver. No ballots were damaged in that incident.

Voters in Washington are encouraged to check the status of their ballots at www.votewa.gov to track their return status. If a returned ballot is not marked as “received,” voters can print a replacement ballot or visit their local elections department for a replacement, the secretary of state’s office said.

Durkin Richer reported from Washington. Gene Johnson in Seattle contributed.

In this image provided by the Clark County Auditor's Office, ballots damaged in a drop box arson in Vancouver, Wash., are spread on tables on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (Greg Kimsey/Clark County Auditor's Office via AP)

In this image provided by the Clark County Auditor's Office, ballots damaged in a drop box arson in Vancouver, Wash., are spread on tables on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (Greg Kimsey/Clark County Auditor's Office via AP)

A person drops off their 2024 election ballot at a newly installed drop box outside the Multnomah County Elections Division office on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A fire-damaged ballot drop box bin is seen next to the drop box during a news conference at the Multnomah County Elections Division office on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A damaged ballot drop box is displayed during a news conference at the Multnomah County Elections Division office on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Election workers collect ballots from a newly placed ballot drop box outside the Multnomah County Elections Division office on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A damaged bin that was in a ballot drop box is displayed at the Multnomah County Elections Office on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A voter drops off a ballot for the 2024 election in a newly installed drop box at the Multnomah County Elections Division office on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Portland, Ore., after the pervious drop box was damaged. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Police tape surrounds a ballot drop box damaged by a fire on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Vancouver, Wash. (Monika Spykerman/The Columbian via AP)

Police tape surrounds a ballot drop box damaged by a fire on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Vancouver, Wash. (Monika Spykerman/The Columbian via AP)

Police say man behind ballot box arsons has metalworking experience and may be planning more attacks

Police say man behind ballot box arsons has metalworking experience and may be planning more attacks

A damaged ballot drop box is displayed during a news conference at the Multnomah County Elections Division office on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A man accused of having a machine gun at Tuskegee University during a hail of gunfire that left one man dead and at least 16 others hurt told a federal agent that he fired his weapon during the shooting, but denied aiming at anyone.

The new details are contained in a newly unsealed federal complaint that describes how one officer ran toward the gunfire. That officer found a dead body, and then saw Jaquez Myrick with a Glock pistol, the complaint states.

Myrick was later questioned by state and federal agents, who asked him whether he discharged his firearm during the shooting.

“Myrick then confessed to discharging the Glock but denied shooting at anyone,” a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who took part in the interview, wrote in the complaint.

Myrick, 25, of Montgomery, is accused of having a weapon with a machine gun conversion device and faces a federal charge of possession of a machine gun. The complaint does not accuse him of shooting anyone. No attorneys who could speak on Myrick's behalf are listed in the federal court documents, and it was unclear from jail records whether he has one.

The complaint also details the chaotic scene and how Myrick was apprehended.

A Tuskegee police officer, one of the first to respond to reports of gunshots on the campus, heard the gunfire immediately but wasn’t able to drive his patrol car through a parking lot because it was so jammed with people and cars, according to the court records.

Officer Alan Ashley then left his car and ran toward the gunfire, soon finding a man dead from a gunshot wound, according to the complaint. Ashley then saw Myrick, armed with a Glock pistol, and took him into custody, the complaint states.

The city officer also gave the gun to the special agent who wrote the complaint.

“During a field examination, I found the pistol to function as a machine gun,” the federal agent wrote.

Myrick told the agents he had come from his home in Montgomery to the Tuskegee campus “looking for a party” and was with some friends when the shooting started.

He said he purchased the Glock from a pawn shop in Tampa, Florida, and then purchased a machine gun conversion device from a seller he met through the online site Discord, the complaint states. Myrick said he had the package delivered to a vacant residence, and installed the device on his pistol.

The shooting came as the school's 100th homecoming week was winding down. A dozen of the victims were hit by gunfire, with the others injured as they tried to escape the chaotic scene, authorities said. Many of the injured were students.

The man killed was identified as 18-year-old La’Tavion Johnson, of Troy, Alabama, who was not a student, the local coroner said.

The FBI joined the investigation and said it was seeking tips from the public, as well as any video witnesses might have. It set up a site online for people to upload video.

The shooting is the latest case in which a “machine gun conversion device” was found, something law officers around the nation have expressed grave concerns about. The proliferation of these types of weapons is made possible by small pieces of metal or plastic made with a 3D printer or ordered online.

Guns with conversion devices have been used in several mass shootings, including one that left four dead at a Sweet Sixteen party in Alabama last year and another that left six people dead at a bar district in Sacramento, California.

“It takes two or three seconds to put in some of these devices into a firearm to make that firearm into a machine gun instantly,” Steve Dettelbach, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said in AP’s report on the weapons earlier this year.

The shooting left the entire university community shaken, said Amare’ Hardee, a senior from Tallahassee, Florida, who is president of the student government association.

“This senseless act of violence has touched each of us, whether directly or indirectly,” he said at the school’s homecoming convocation Sunday morning.

Sunday’s shooting comes just over a year after four people were injured in a shooting at a Tuskegee University student housing complex. Two visitors to the campus were shot and two students were hurt while trying to leave the scene of what campus officials described as an “unauthorized party” in September 2023, the Montgomery Advertiser reported.

About 3,000 students are enrolled at the university about 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Alabama’s capital city of Montgomery.

The university was the first historically Black college to be designated a Registered National Landmark in 1966. It was also designated a National Historic Site in 1974, according to the school’s website.

Homecoming parade floats sit on the campus of Tuskegee University a day after a shooting occurred, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Tuskegee, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

This image taken from video provided by WSFA shows people standing near the scene of an earlier shooting at Tuskegee University, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024, in Tuskegee, Ala. (WSFA via AP)

This image taken from video provided by WSFA shows law enforcement at the scene of a shooting at Tuskegee University, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024, in Tuskegee, Ala. (WSFA via AP)

The entrance to Tuskegee University is seen, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Tuskegee, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)