Dalton Bands Together to Aid Bombed Out Firm
As the northwest Georgia community of Dalton comes to grips with a suicide bombing at a law firm that left the main suspect dead and a name partner in critical condition, residents are rallying around the well-known firm.
Housed in a two-story colonial home, McCamy, Phillips, Tuggle & Fordham, was characterized as one of the most important firms in the city of 30,000. So much so that city official offered the firm temporary space in city hall, the Associated Press reports.
The firm’s senior partner, Steve Williams, who was out of the office during the blast, has vowed to rebuild.
On Friday, police responded to a disturbance at the firm. Authorities say Lloyd Sylvester Cantrell, who’d been embroiled in a bitter land dispute with his son, intended to drive his SUV, which was found packed with propane, natural gas and gasoline, into the firm. Witnesses said that when that attempt failed, he walked up to the building and threw a bomb through the window, killing himself, severely burning James H. Phillips, 79, and wounding three others. In another AP story, it was reported that Phillips is doing well and was up and walking around today at the Augusta burn unit where he was taken.
Dalton’s district attorney, Kermit McManus called the bombing “an attack on the judicial system.”
“He was going to blow the whole building up as a result of this legal dispute,” McManus is quoted saying. “It’s more devastating than we know. I think it will change the way people think, and it’s going to change the way people do business.”
While law enforcement isn’t looking to point fingers at anyone besides Cantrell, the bomber’s son maintains that officials didn’t do enough to intervene with his father.
“I blame the justice system here in Dalton because they did nothing,” said Bruce Cantrell, who had hired McCamy Phillps to help him keep his father off his land. Cantrell acknowledges in the AP story that he never filed a police report, but said there is a lengthy court record that details his father’s mental instability.
