Ashley Traylor
Editor-in-Chief
A man cleaning out a home on Tuesday, Aug. 28, found a World War II-era hand grenade and took it to the Murray Police Department.
After the initial inspection, an MPD detective determined there was a possibility it could be a live device.
The detective took the grenade to Renaissance Park, which is located across the street from the Murray Police Department at the corner of Fifth and Poplar streets.
“It was a convenient location to try and set it away from where anybody was at the time,” Sgt. Brant Shutt of the Murray Police Department said. “We wanted to make sure there was no danger, no harm to anyone.”
The regional bomb squad, which includes three explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) certified technicians, was called in to examine the grenade.
“We’re what they call a regional team, so even though we’re all from the Paducah Police Department, we cover 13 counties in western Kentucky,” Detective Blake Quinn said.
Once the bomb squad and the Kentucky State Police Hazardous Device Unit arrived on scene, Sgt. Chris Bolton, one of the certified technicians, “suited up” in the EOD suit, commonly known as a bomb or blast suit, before entering the park to examine the device.
After seeing the photos on TheNews.org of Bolton in the suit, many social media users questioned why he did not have gloves on.
“When you put on gloves, you lose a little bit of dexterity in your hands and you also, more or less, lose the sense of touch,” Quinn said. “So, anytime you’re working with something such as a hand grenade, you want to have as much dexterity in your hands as possible. And if you are wearing gloves, it cuts down on that.”
Upon approaching the grenade, Quinn said Bolton did a visual scan and then used a portable X-ray machine to X-ray the device. It was then deemed to be a live hand grenade.
“That means, you pull the pin and you release that handle, it’s going to explode,” Shutt said.
The bomb squad took the grenade to the Murray Police Department’s firing range to safely detonate it.
Some of the nearby residents were asked to stay in their homes or evacuate as a precaution, and a few blocks surrounding the area were blocked to traffic for nearly an hour.
No injuries occurred, but it generated a buzz in Murray.
“It’s a first for me,” Shutt said. “I’m sure it has happened at some point, but this is the first that I can recall around here.”
