Pinellas County Sheriff's Workplace
A Florida man who was seen working away from an Oath Keeper’s rally was arrested on Friday after authorities discovered him in possession of a do-it-yourself explosive.
Garrett Smith, 22, was charged with loitering and making and possessing a damaging machine, based on the Pinellas County Sheriff's Workplace. As of Friday he had not but posted a $300,000 bond.
A subsequent search of Smith’s home turned up “hand-style grenades and a pipe explosive,” although his political affiliations weren't instantly clear, nor was any potential motive.
“He’s an odd duck, that’s for positive,” Dennis Fuller, who helps run a non secular retreat in Tennessee known as Younger Life which Smith attended in 2019, instructed The Each day Beast.
Fuller stated he hasn’t spoken to Smith in two years, and that he wouldn't have predicted his alleged bomb-making, however that Smith “simply doesn’t suppose like everybody else.
“I’ve been working with school children for 20 years. He simply had an odd method about him,” Fuller stated.
The rally on Thursday night time occurred outdoors of Pinellas County Jail on behalf of alleged Capitol rioter Jeremy Brown, an Oath Keeper who was arrested final 12 months for taking part within the rebel.
An FBI search warrant printed in October revealed that Brown—a former Inexperienced Beret—could have additionally by chance incriminated himself for illegally stockpiling weapons when he posted his residence on the market on Zillow. One inside picture confirmed a whiteboard that detailed his alleged stash, together with “flash bangs” he was not approved to own.
Brown has downplayed his involvement within the Capitol rebellion. “We weren’t even anyplace near the Capitol after we came upon the Capitol obtained breached,” he instructed WFLA in October. “So, the concept the Oath Keepers organized some type of conspiracy? We had been there for safety and a few of them made the error of getting caught up within the second.”
Authorities are nonetheless probing Smith’s proximity to this week’s rally, which was cleared and searched after regulation enforcement discovered his explosive.
“Smith is what we name a sleeper, and these are essentially the most regarding people as a result of there aren't any alternatives to intervene and thwart their prison exercise earlier than they really act,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri instructed the Tampa Bay Occasions.