Six home made bombs found at scene of Ashland shooting

Published 5:00 pm Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Ashland, Ore.–Investigators said they found six homemade bombs, grenades, and guns inside the Ashland mobile home where Tuesday’s shooting occurred.

The discovery came one day after the man living there was shot and killed by two Jackson County Sheriff Deputies.

According to court documents, 74 -year-old former owner, Earl Harris had been fighting foreclosure for years. The bank took the home on Mistletoe Road in 2013 and when deputies went to evict Harris Tuesday, Sheriff Mike Winters said Harris went to a back room.

“He was returning with what appeared to be a shotgun. He had multiple weapons on his person. He had multiple weapons on the house,” said Winters.

Winters continued and said his two deputies shot Harris, killing him. And it wasn’t the first time Winters said they’d made contact with the man many call anti-government and a former military man.

Winters said, “He was very dissatisfied with the fact that his home was begin repossessed. From indicators that we’ve seen with the American flag hanging upside down… that would indicate that he’s anti-government.”

Orville Gilmore is a manager at Blackbird Shopping Center and said he has no idea where Harris would get his hands on grenades.

“They’re illegal, they’re high explosives, you cant buy them,” said Gilmore.

It’s also unclear if the guns were registered to Harris or what kind of explosives the bomb squad allegedly found. Wednesday night, there’s nothing more than speculation as to why he may have had them.

“He could have had post-traumatic stress disorder. Seeing combat can get just about anybody. You see a lot of things that most people don’t want to see,” said Gilmore.

The two deputies are on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

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