The Colorado Springs chapter of the NAACP reopened Thursday, roughly two days after an improvised explosive device shuttered their building and set off an outcry across the country.
“We’re all fine,” said Carol Chippey-Rhanes, a volunteer manning the phones. “We’re all good.”
The FBI announced that there would be a news conference at 4 p.m. Friday to provide an update into the investigation into what appears to be the intentional bombing of the civil right’s organization.
In addition to the FBI, the news conference will be attended by Colorado Springs police, Fountain police, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office and the ATF.
The NAACP office was closed on Wednesday, the phone ringing off the hook as media outlets nationwide called seeking comment. By late afternoon, the branch’s voicemail box was full.
No one was injured in the blast and the building that houses the NAACP offices and a neighboring barber shop — Mr. G’s Hair Design Studio — suffered only minor damage. A gas can placed next to the device did not ignite, but the explosion was so loud it sounded to one man in the building like a shotgun blast being fired near his head.
“This type of criminal act is unacceptable,” Steve Bach, mayor of Colorado Springs, said in a statement on Thursday. “I expect that law enforcement will work together to solve this crime and bring the responsible individual to justice. There is no place for this type of activity in our city.”
Police and the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office released a joint statement with the NAACP chapter on Thursday similarly denouncing the apparent attack.
“We stand with the business owners at Mr. G’s Hair Design Studio and the NAACP denouncing any violence or aggression brought against our community,” the group said.
“We are investigating all potential motives at this time,” Special Agent Amy Sanders, an FBI spokeswoman, said on Wednesday. “An act of domestic terrorism is certainly one possibility, in addition to many others.”
The bombing has elicited an outpouring of support from civil rights organizations in the state and across the country, including the NAACP’s national and Denver offices and the Denver Urban League.
Federal authorities have still not officially determined whether the NAACP chapter or the neighboring barbershop was the target of the bombing. But the owner of that shop, Gene Southerland, is adamant the blast could not have been aimed at him.
“Everybody loves me,” Southerland told a client on Wednesday.
Officials are seeking a “potential person of interest,” described as a balding white man, about 40 years old. Neighbors saw a man matching his description flee after the explosion.
“He may be driving a 2000 or older model, dirty, white pickup truck with paneling, a dark-colored bed liner, open tailgate and a missing or covered license plate,” the FBI said.
Anyone with information about the explosive device should call the FBI tipline at 303-435-7787.
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JesseAPaul
