BURIEN, Wash. — A man, woman and child narrowly evaded a seemingly random fiery explosion in Burien Friday, Oct. 11, while driving on 116th Street around 5:30 p.m.
John Richards, who is well-known in western Washington as a radio DJ for KEXP's morning show, told KING 5 that he and his child had just picked up his wife from the airport and were driving home to West Seattle when a ball fell onto the road.
"And the soccer parent in me is, 'That’s a soccer ball.' So I actually slow down a little because a kid is possibly gonna run behind this ball," Richards said.
Then he realized the ball had smoke coming from it.
"Within a second, I turn to my wife and I say that’s not ... that’s a bomb," said Richards.
Richards and his family were just feet away from the object when it detonated. He said it traumatized his 11-year-old son.
"They saw it explode behind the car," said Richard.
He said all three of them heard ringing in their ears, and their hearing felt muffled. They immediately pulled over and called 911.
"We came out ... absolutely in shock," said Richards.
They were not injured, but the incident still took a toll. Not only was his car slightly damaged, but he and his family were left to deal with the emotional impacts of it.
“Thank God I wasn’t here a second too soon," said Richards.
Still, he has a lot of questions; mainly, who did this - and why?
"I'm afraid this is gonna happen again. Why wouldn’t it happen again?” said Richards.
While he and his family work to recover from any mental impacts from this, he said he has plans to share his story on KEXP Tuesday morning.
"Maybe it's not funny ... but it's ... watching Bugs Bunny, man! You see those little bombs they light, they're like throwing them in the cartoon," said Richards. "I think that trained me more than any other thing."
KING 5 showed the surveillance video to a retired explosive enforcement officer for the Bureau of ATF, and he told us the white smoke indicates the device was probably made of flash powder and was likely homemade.
Still no word from police on any arrests in this case.
The following day, on Saturday, two men were arrested on I-90 on Mercer Island after police said one of them attempted to light a bomb while running away from officers.
To find out whether these incidents were in any way connected, KING 5 has reached out to several agencies, including Bellevue Police Department, King County Sheriff's Office, and FBI Seattle, but as of Monday, they were not able to confirm or deny any connection.