Concord Crimeline Seeks Tips Connected To March Explosive Device Case
CONCORD, NH — More than nine months since police and firefighters were called to the Capital Plaza in Downtown Concord for a report of a bomb scare false alarm, a box with wires in it that was deemed harmless, police are asking for the public’s help identifying a person of interest in the case.
Around 8 p.m. on March 25, police and fire and rescue teams were sent to North Main and Warren streets for a report of a possible explosive device in the area. The device was described as a box with liquid inside and wires hanging out. Smoke was emitting from the box, according to witnesses.
Multiple calls came in about the incident. Police set up a perimeter around the area after receiving information that the device was outside Margaritas Restaurant in Bicentennial Square, about a block away. Firefighters also staged. Later, the device was found at 2 Capital Plaza, the retail and office complex that abuts the School Street Garage.
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One officer also confirmed a witness had picked it up before they arrived. It was described as a box with a pasta bottle inside with liquid in the bottle.
After about 15 minutes, firefighters were requested to examine the box. They deemed it harmless and the situation safe about 10 minutes later.
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NEWS 603 posted a video of the incident on Facebook in March.
On Wednesday, Concord police released surveillance footage of a man they are trying to identify who may be connected to the incident.
In a Concord Regional Crimeline alert, investigators called the box “an incendiary device” and noted it was “placed outside the Teatotaller Café and Bakery.”
The person of interest is a man, who was white, with a graying beard, and wearing glasses. He was also a Pink Floyd North America Tour 1975 sweatshirt with “Wish You Were Here” along the arm at the time of the incident. The sweatshirt is a rock hoodie reprint sold by Walmart. The person of interest was “likely associated” with a 2012 to 2016 blue or dark blue Honda Pilot, the alert stated.
Months after the bomb scare, neo-Nazis connected to NSC-131 protested outside a drag queen story hour at the café. About a dozen men, with masks covering their faces, banged on the café’s windows, offered racist chants and posed making Nazi salutes, and held a sign that read, “Defend white communities.”
A few days after the incident, the org’s leader, Leo Anthony Cullinan, was found dead in Manchester due to a fentanyl and meth overdose.
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office has been attempting to have the org’s members charged with state civil rights act violations but has been thwarted in superior court on First Amendment grounds. John Formella, the attorney general, filed a new civil complaint NSC-131 earlier this month, for violating New Hampshire’s anti-discrimination law during the Teatotaller incident.
Teatotaller is co-owned by Emmett Soldati, a Democrat activist and past Executive Council candidate from the Seacoast. The company plans on opening a location in Dover after closing its Somersworth location in January after about 12 years in business.
Anyone with information about this man was asked to contact the Concord police Criminal Investigation Division at 603-225-8600. Tips can also be submitted anonymously through the Concord Regional Crimeline at 603-226-3100 or at concordregionalcrimeline.com.
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