Keep Bailing

A man who allegedly lobbed firebombs at five different targets in San Diego, including two police stations and a middle school, was arrested after a wild high-speed chase that started in Del Mar Heights and ended in Temecula. San Diego resident Edward Batties, 26, was taken into custody on suspicion of arson, one count of evading a police officer, two counts of burglary and two counts of possession of a destructive device.  He is being held at San Diego County Jail on $160,000 bail.

Why did he go on a firebombing rampage that lasted 36-hours?  Investigators looking at possibilities and following up on leads. Once such clue has surfaced in the form of an entry Batties made on his MySpace page more than two years ago.  On it, he lists among his desires: “blowing the world up.”

Batties’ bizarre bomb spree began on Friday evening, around 11:00, when he tossed a Molotov cocktail into the San Diego Police Department’s Mid-City station’s fenced yard.  It rolled under a car but failed to ignite. Almost immediately, SD police got a call that someone had thrown another bomb at the nearby Monroe Clark Middle School. That device landed in the schoolyard but no damage was reported there, either.

On Saturday afternoon, Mission Beach firefighters were called to the scene of a Chevy Silverado pickup that was engulfed in flames. Investigators determined the blaze was set deliberately and witnesses told police they saw a white Ford SUV driving away from the area.

Later that same evening, Batties allegedly tossed another homemade bomb over the fence of the San Diego Police Department’s Eastern Division Station.  This was followed by yet another Molotov cocktail hurled at a house on Zencaro Avenue in Serra Mesa.  The homemade bomb smashed a window and then fizzled out on the lawn.

On Sunday, a Del Mar Heights officer who answered a vehicle burglary call spotted an SUV that matched the description of the vehicle seen near the previous fire bombings and the chase was on.

Authorities pursued Batties’ SUV, which he drove at more than 100 miles per hour, to the Riverside County line.  Police said he threw gas cans and other objects, including Molotov cocktails, out the window during the entire chase. The CHP joined the chase about 20 minutes later, laying a spike strip ahead of the suspect at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Temecula. Even after he sped over the spikes and blew out his tires, Batties still managed to continue on about a mile before careening into the center divide, where he was arrested.

Batties is now in a county jail, apparently unable to make bail and prosecutors said they believe he will be arraigned on Wednesday.

In my opinion, Edward Batties’ behavior suggests he should also drop the “s” from his last name and call himself “Batty”.