Explosive material found during a traffic stop in Little Rock on Friday evening led to a man's arrest at a motel hours later on drug, gun and explosives charges, police said.
Officers arrested L'Donpatrick Bones, 42, in a room at the Days Inn at 901 Fair Park Ave. around 9:50 p.m., about three hours after they discovered the explosive components during a traffic stop near 5322 Asher Ave.
Police said they identified Bones as the possible owner of the components after interviewing the two people in the vehicle during the stop, Barry Poindexter, 45, and Brittany Brown, 29. Officers pulled over Poindexter because he was observed speeding, and he told them he did not have a valid license, police said.
A search of the vehicle located containers of a crystalline substance and a bag containing a yellow cord connected to a silver object that the officers recognized as a blasting cap, police said. Police cleared the area while Little Rock Fire Department bomb squad technicians examined the items.
The technicians identified the substance as ammonium nitrate and nitro methane connected to a commercial-grade blasting cap and declared the scene safe.
Ammonium nitrate is a component in explosives used in mining and construction. Nitro methane is also explosive and is also a component in the fuel used by drag racing cars. Blasting caps serve as ignition sources for larger explosive charges.
Poindexter and Brown were released to Maumelle police, where they had active warrants, after questioning and did not face any charges in the incident Saturday, a police incident report states.
Bones was at the motel with three other people when police arrived and arrested him, police said. More drugs and a gun were found in the room, police said.
One of the people with Bones, Kristen Davis, had a warrant out for her arrest and was being held in the Pulaski County jail Tuesday, an online inmate roster showed. Another, Arstra Malone, refused to identify herself and was arrested on a charge of obstructing governmental operations, police said. She did not appear on the inmate roster Tuesday.
Bones faces felony charges of committing criminal acts involving explosives, possession of a firearm by a certain person, simultaneous possession of drugs and a gun, trafficking fentanyl, possession of drug paraphernalia and four counts of possession of drugs with intent to distribute. He was being held in the Pulaski County jail Tuesday evening in lieu of $75,00 bond, an online inmate roster showed.