A 56-year-old man is “presumed, at this point, to be deceased” after the house he was in near Washington, D.C., blew up as police officers tried to serve a search warrant, authorities said Tuesday.
Police had been called to the Arlington, Virginia, home of James Yoo, on Monday after he allegedly shot a flare gun at the property on North Burlington Street, officials said.
The man inside did not respond to requests to come outside, prompting officers to fire irritants into the house, police said.
The home would later explode and the man police believed was inside, Yoo, died in the blast and fire, Arlington County Police Chief Andy Penn told reporters.
“Based on the preliminary investigation of the incident, we believe the resident of the home, James Yoo, 56, of Arlington, is the involved suspect,” Penn said.
“The suspect was inside the residence at the time of the explosion and he is presumed, at this point, to be deceased. Human remains have been located at the scene.”
The cause of the explosion is still unknown and under investigation.
Neighbors described the man who lived there as a recluse who had trashed his front yard and tossed clothes out the window hours before Monday’s explosion.
“We had noticed some weird stuff. In the front law, trash was thrown everywhere and clothes had been thrown out the second story window, and he had never done that before,” said Tracy Mitchell, 57, who lives across the street from Yoo’s home. “The house was always locked down tight with no trespassing signs everywhere. So just seeing that debris outside was weird.”
Even before the explosion, the home stood out because of the aluminum foil covering windows and its resident making no efforts to meet neighbors, according to Mitchell.
“No one did (meet him), he was too creepy. He put foil over the windows, blocked everything and never came out of the house,” she told NBC News, estimating the man had lived there for at least five years.
“Over the years he lived there, I might have seen him three or four times and always had a backpack.”
While the cause of the explosion is still under investigation, the blast appears to have permanently shaken some neighbors.
“Makes you feel unsafe. This is a pretty quiet neighborhood usually,” Kathleen Boyle said. “I and we actually were fortunate the fire department is right there on the on the corner. So they came right away. But it does make you (feel) like, what the heck is going on, makes you feel a little unsafe because normally it’s a safe neighborhood.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Polly DeFrank and Grace Jaworski contributed.
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