It’s the explosion that the media really isn’t talking much about. On Wednesday evening, a driver was taking a Kia minivan through the front gate of Travis Air Force Base (located in California’s Bay Area) when it burst into flames.
Initial reports said that the minivan “crashed” through the main gate, but the minivan actually crashed after going through the gate – at which point the security personnel had already noticed that the minivan was on fire.
There was a possible attempted attack at Travis Air Force base in northern California. A car loaded with propane tanks ran through the main gates last night. CBS News' John Blackstone reporting. https://t.co/V9xHOKQmbu pic.twitter.com/VMMyEefB7U
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 22, 2018
The driver has now been identified – and news flash, he isn’t Amish.
Federal investigators on Friday said that the person who drove a burning minivan filled with propane and gas tanks into the front gate of Travis Air Force Base in Northern California was a 51-year-old Bay Area man originally from India.
Hafiz Kazi was a legal permanent resident and had lived in the United States since 1993, said Sean Ragan, FBI special agent in charge of the Sacramento field office. Kazi had lived in the Bay Area, including Sausalito, Ragan said, but his most recent place of residence was not known.
Investigators have yet to determine a motive for the Wednesday night attack or evidence that anyone else was involved.
Kazi drove the Kia minivan through the front gate of the military base, which is near Fairfield, around 7 p.m. Wednesday. Security personnel saw flames inside the van, which crashed shortly after going through the gate, Ragan said.
Emergency responders initially did not know if it was an attack or some sort of mishap. But when they opened the doors to the minivan they found five propane tanks, three plastic one-gallon gas cans, several lighters, three phones and a gym bag with personal items, Ragan said.
The base’s explosive ordnance disposal team quickly responded to the scene as did Air Force investigators, the FBI, fire crews and local police.
Kazi’s body was severely burned, but coroner’s officials were able to identify him through his fingerprints.
Ragan said investigators are trying to glean information from Kazi’s phone and other items recovered from the scene. He said agents also are pursuing multiple leads to piece together Kazi’s life and a possible motive.
The dead man’s religious beliefs and affiliation are not known at this point, said Ragan, who debunked a rumor that some sort of “jihad” video was found on Kazi’s phone.
Authorities were able to contact one of Kazi’s relatives in India to inform them of his death, but there’s no indication that person was interviewed as part of the investigation. Agents continue to search for any potential relatives or other people who knew Kazi.
Travis AFB is taking this extremely seriously.
Please advise the latest update on the incident at the Main Gate. #TravisStrong pic.twitter.com/yo8xWJUSQI
— Travis AFB Official (@Travis60AMW) March 22, 2018
#TeamTravis
Security Forces personnel have begun implementing additional security measures at the main and hospital gates. Be prepared for longer than usual commute times. #TravisStrong— Travis AFB Official (@Travis60AMW) March 23, 2018
Media Release: FBI Provides Update on Travis Air Force Base Security Incident#TravisStrong #NoBounds pic.twitter.com/vbHeCesOty
— Travis AFB Official (@Travis60AMW) March 24, 2018
If this was a planned suicide attack – and I don’t know how it can be seen any other way, because you don’t just load up the minivan with multiple propane tanks and gas cans and lighters and decide to go for an evening drive to your nearest Air Force base for fun – it would seem that there weren’t any innocent casualties thanks to the ineptitude of the driver, who appears to have mistimed the moment he decided to light everything around him on fire.
Here’s the exit question we all really need to be thinking about:
Why isn't this everywhere? https://t.co/OJnCegwMtY
— Clarence Whorley (@ClarenceWhorley) March 23, 2018
We’ve been so distracted by marching teenagers that it’s been hard to get the attention of the media focused on anything else. The randomness of the Austin bombings gained attention, but fortunately the perp is now dead by his own hand. The ISIS attack in France yesterday should serve to remind us that all it takes is one “lone wolf” to bring terror back. The Austin bombings showed us, again, the kind of damage one determined evil monster can do. The attack at Travis AFB almost showed us the same. We can be thankful no one else was injured, but still realize just how close a call this really was.
Does not fit into the current media frenzy. And I doubt it will the next time unless, of course, guns are used. Then the school kids can organize another ‘spontaneous’ March like the current one.
Despite the odd wording of the LA Times article, this guy still had to have “crashed” the gate. There is NO way he drove up, showed his ID, and the gate cops just happened to notice flames at that point, and he simply drove on. This was definitely an attack – though where he was trying to actually hit is a mystery.
(I’ll speculate that he was trying to time the boom he expected with being at the gate. But propane tanks don’t blow up the way they used to.)
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