'Suicide Bomber' in Land Dispute with Son Targeted Law Firm
A bitter family property dispute is the reason a 78-year-old Dalton, Ga., man entered a law firm Friday morning and detonated a bomb, authorities say.
The suspected bomber, Lloyd Sylvester Cantrell, was killed, and the firm’s name partner, James H. Phillips, 79, was badly burned when Cantrell threw a bomb through the window of the firm McCamy, Phillips, Tuggle & Fordham, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
“He was intending to do harm to a great number of people,” the AJC quoted Scott Sweetow, assistant special agent in charge with the Atlanta field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as saying. “Essentially, what this guy intended to do was to become a suicide bomber.”
In addition to Phillips, who was airlifted to a burn unit in Augusta, Ga., in critical condition, three others, a law firm assistant and two clients, were injured.
Phillips’ son Marc Phillips told the AJC that his father spoke to him before the airlift. Marc Phillips said his father, “felt bad for [Cantrell]. That’s just the kind of person he is.”
At the heart of the well-documented dispute was an apparent conflict over parcels of Dalton-area land that Cantrell had given his son. The son, who was represented by Phillips, reportedly had grown fearful of his father and filed a lawsuit to keep him off the property. The suit accused Cantrell of stealing tools, kicking down a door and claimed Cantrell was suicidal, the AJC reports.
According to earlier posts on ABAJournal.com, police were called to the law firm the morning of the bombing in response to a disturbance. Cantrell may have 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.
Marc Phillips told the AJC that his father tried to talk to calm the situation and talk Cantrell out of detonating the bomb.
“I don’t think he realized quite the extent of the danger,” Marc Phillips said.
The explosion in Dalton was the second of two apparent bomb blasts affecting attorneys within a 24-hour period. On Thursday morning, at about 11:15 a.m., an explosion in a parking garage in a St. Louis suburb injured a corporate lawyer as he was getting into his car. It also is being investigated by ATF, as well as the FBI.
Additional coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “St. Louis Lawyer Injured By Parking Lot Package Bomb”
