SAN ANTONIO — A 29-year-old man was arrested this week after police found what they believed to be a pipe bomb in a car he was sleeping in on the northeast side.
It unfolded when a neighbor called 911 to report a suspicious vehicle and occupant, according to an arrest affidavit. San Antonio Police officers responded to the scene and tried to identify the suspect, Christopher Friedrich, but at that time he kept giving police "false names and birthdates."
Friedrich was found to be wanted for a separate incident of family violence. A subsequent search of the car he was in turned up a bag resting on the passenger seat next to Friedrich with a plastic pellet gun. The affidavit noted the plastic gun resembled a real gun.
Arson investigators were also dispatched to the area to conduct an investigation into what they believed was a pipe bomb, an affidavit says. The investigation revealed that someone filled a pipe with powder, ball bearing and metallic arrowheads.
After SAPD Bomb Squad personnel secured the scene, the affidavit states, police classified the device as an explosive "capable of causing significant harm to the operator and those in close proximity."
Friedrich denied knowledge of the device. He is in custody and charged with being in possession of an explosive weapon, a third-degree felony.
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