Springfield Police say an IED found in downtown Springfield Monday night was “rendered safe.”
Lt. Chris Stiel says officers responded near the intersection of 6th and Washington shortly before 6:30 and found an improvised explosive device; some on scene characterized it as a pipe bomb between the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and the Brewhaus Bar.
“It could have hurt,” Stiel said when asked why the S.O.S. bomb squad was brought in. “It could have done some damage.”
Police set up a perimeter shortly after they were called; Stiel says the public wasn’t in any danger once police arrived.
Authorities are releasing very little else as an investigation is launched. They won’t say how large the device was, how it was “rendered safe,” how big it was or what materials were used to make it.