Tennessee man charged in attempt to detonate bombs during arrest

A Tennessee man was arrested Friday after authorities said they found what they believed were 14 improvised explosive devices in his home, some of which he tried to set off while they were serving a warrant.

Authorities said the man, Kevin Wade O’Neal, 54, had warrants for threatening to kill public officials and law enforcement personnel.

For several months, O’Neal has made death threats on his Facebook page against members of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, accusing the office of stalking him, ignoring criminal activity and using “Wiccan magic” to carry out “electronic torture.”

Law enforcement officials were serving the warrants at O’Neal’s home in Old Fort, Tennessee, which is about 40 miles east of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

While inside the home, authorities said they noticed smoke coming from the bedroom where they found O’Neal. They then discovered what they believed to be “improvised explosive devices,” authorities said.

“During the arrest, investigators believe he attempted to detonate explosive devices as officers entered the residence,” the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook.

Law enforcement officials were able to safely evacuate the home, authorities said.

The Chattanooga Police Department’s bomb squad and federal agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were called in.

Officials said they found 14 improvised explosive devices inside O’Neal’s home.

On his Facebook page, O’Neal made threats against Sheriff Steve Ross of Polk County and Judge Andrew Mark Freiberg, a circuit court judge in Tennessee.

O’Neal took aim at several employees of the sheriff’s office. In one post, he referred to Ross as “a demon possessed man.”

He frequently asked his Facebook friends if they knew where Ross and other local authorities lived.

The threats against sheriff’s workers stemmed from a dispute O’Neal had with a former friend, his niece Amber Lilley said in an interview Saturday.

O’Neal was convinced that the former friend and public officials were in a “satanic witchcraft cult,” Lilley said. He accused people in the sheriff’s office of working with the friend to use “electronic forms of torture” to “drive people crazy and manipulate their lives.”

Lilley said her uncle was in desperate need of mental health treatment and had substance abuse issues. Her family struggled to find adequate care for him as his violent outbursts and hallucinations worsened over the years, she said, and they had notified police.

“He needed help, but there was no help,” she said.

O’Neal’s temperament was “explosive” and he would frequently “go into a psychosis and in a rage,” Lilley said.

“I didn’t think this situation would ever have an ending where somebody wasn’t hurt,” she said.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

O’Neal was charged with nine counts of attempted first-degree murder, 14 counts of possession of prohibited weapons and related charges.

It was unclear Saturday whether O’Neal had a lawyer. He was being held at the county jail in Benton, Tennessee, authorities said. His bond had yet to be set.

O’Neal was convicted of larceny in 1989 in Texas. His criminal record includes convictions on drug-related offenses in Georgia, according to public records.