SAN JOSE – Police have arrested a man as part of an investigation into a live bomb found at Oak Grove High School earlier this week but have not definitively linked him to the crime, despite the discovery of several homemade bombs at his home, which is near the school in South San Jose.
Andrew Page White, 36, was arrested around 2:30 a.m. Friday following an eight-hour standoff at his four-plex unit on Tyhurst Court, a couple of blocks west of the Oak Grove student parking lot where the bomb was found.
For most of Friday, San Jose police officers and the bomb squad were searching White’s home and evacuated nearby residents so they could clear the area of any explosion risks, according to police. That included the use of a robot that earlier in the morning took photos revealing “several improvised explosives” inside the home and garage.
“The area surrounding the residence will remain evacuated until the bomb unit determines it is safe for residents to return home,” police said in a Friday news release.
A neighbor, 19-year-old Edson Diaz, called the incident frightening.
“The police are there, so I feel kind of safe,” Edson said late Friday afternoon. “But I’m kind of scared about those bombs being there.”
The scene was cleared about 10:15 p.m. Friday, according to San Jose police Officer Gina Tepoorten.
Police went to White’s home around 6 p.m. Thursday to serve a search warrant in connection with the discovery Tuesday of a bomb in some bushes on the outer edge of the student parking lot. Police safely detonated the bomb and are investigating its origin with the help of the Santa Clara County and FBI crime labs.
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Instead of coming out, White holed up inside his residence, and police spent the next several hours ordering him to surrender, as a police helicopter circled overhead and its PA system was used to loudly repeat those orders.
Some evacuated residents made their way to Oak Grove High School, which the East Side Union High School District and Red Cross volunteers turned into a safe space for them to stay in overnight.
At some point during the standoff, police lobbed chemical grenades into the home to flush out White, and eventually took him into custody. White was arrested on an unspecified felony warrant, police said, but he has not been formally implicated in the school bomb incident.
“The investigation into the Oak Grove High School incident remains open. Detectives have not confirmed that the suspect in custody is connected with the device that was located at Oak Grove High School,” police said. “The San Jose Police Department continues to ask the public for assistance in providing Information in the Oak Grove incident.”
On Thursday, a woman at the scene, who described herself as the wife of the man being served with the search warrant, shot down speculation that he was connected to the bomb case. But a handful of neighbors said early Friday morning that bangs that sounded like fireworks came from the residence almost nightly for at least a year.
“That place has been nothing but problems,” said one neighbor who asked not be named out of privacy and safety concerns.
Another neighbor, 21-year-old Joel Gomez, wondered aloud about the worse-case scenario.
“Imagine them going off at the same time — multiple ones,” Gomez said about the bombs. “The whole house would have gone up.”
Anyone with information for the bomb investigation can contact Detective Joel Martinez at 408-464-8379 or leave a tip with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at svcrimestoppers.org. Tipsters may be eligible for a cash reward.
