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Police say East Boston man was making a pipe bomb when it exploded

Mikula

Boston Police are charging that Tomas Mikula, 28, was futzing with chemicals in his Webster Street apartment early Sunday when it exploded, leaving him with second-degree burns over his legs, compromising the structural integrity of his building and showering the street below his second-floor apartment with glass and other debris.

In addition to being charged with blowing things up, Mikula was also charged with possession of the handgun, rifle and ammunition firefighters say they found while checking the apartment, police say.

According to police:

The tenant living on the second floor of the building, later identified Tomas Mikula, was transported to an area hospital where he was treated for non-life threatening injuries. Prior to his being transported from the scene, Mr. Mikula stated that the explosion had originated in his apartment. While conducting a protective sweep of the Mr. Mikula’s residence for safety purposes, members of the Boston Police Bomb Squad observed, in plain view, evidence of materials commonly associated with the creation of an explosive device. In light of the aforementioned observations, a search warrant was executed to better understand the cause of the explosion. As a result of the search warrant, Boston Police Detectives, with assistance from agents assigned to the FBI and ATF, were able to locate and confiscate materials commonly used to construct a home-made explosive device including PVC tubing and chemical compounds. Additionally, officers located and confiscated two handguns, a rifle, and over a hundred round of live ammunition.

Mikula was charged with unlawful possession of explosives, unlawful possession of an incendiary device, willful ignition/discharge of a destructive or incendiary devices, unlawful possession of a handgun, unlawful possession of a rifle, unlawful possession of ammunition and unlawful possession of a high-capacity firearm. He is scheduled for arraignment today in his hospital room at Mass. General.

Innocent, etc.

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Identity theft

Police have issued a warrant for Tomas Mikula, 19, of 380 Sumner St. in East Boston, for allegedly stealing the identity of his employer. His employer, the victim, told police he hired Mikula to do work for him around his house, and from time to time, he would catch him staring at his military awards that were hanging on the walls. Mikula also asked the victim his date of birth and how old he was several times over the course of his employment. The victim later noticed that the awards contained his Social Security numbers, and contacted police on May 14 at 9:30 a.m. about the possibility of his stolen identify. After an investigation, police allegedly discovered that Mikula was applying for numerous credit cards and using 2 Neptune Road #276 to collect them. Mikula is already before the Brighton District Court for multiple counts of larceny and identify fraud, and police said several more warrants will be sought against Mikula for identity fraud, larceny and misuse of credit cards for this latest alleged crime out of Brighton District Court.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/x2085723826/The-week-in-Allston-Brighton-Crim...

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The above story is from 2009.

There is also this current one--same person or just same name?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomas-mikula-3743b1123

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Math is off a little bit on the LinkedIn.
It is 2018. He graduated from high school in 2006. That is a difference of 12 years.

28 years old - 12 years = 16 yrs old when he graduated from high school.
Possible but unlikely.

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Get the guy a birthday present to mask the ruse?

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According to the latest from the Globe, the identity thief and the dabbler in the pipe bomb arts are the same guy. The Linked In link also seems accurate. He sounds like quite a guy.

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I do not understand what the Globe or the police commissioner mean when they say this:

Officials do not think the incident had anything to do with terrorism, Evans said, adding: “Based on what we found, we don’t believe there was a sinister plot.”

How can stockpiling explosive material, guns, and ammo not be a "sinister plot" or a predecessor event to terrorism?

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The Univac 9000 spat back this result: He's A European American.

He may be mentally ill, but terrorist? No. (Snark).

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Huh? You know this guy? Strange comment.

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Not a strange comment either. There were still cops all over the site yesterday at 3 in the afternoon. This wasn't firecrackers left over from the 4th. This was potential for trouble.

Thanks, Adam, any other anons you want to let through just for the sake of it?

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Is our America great again yet?

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One Boston news outlet claimed he was "playing with chemicals."

So was McVeigh?

How many other wackos are out there?

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I read an anecdote yesterday from a bartender in which a customer returned a vodka drink because it tasted "chemical-y." Did she miss the science class where the concept of matter was explained?

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I don't know about here education, but I understand exactly what she meant when she said 'chemical-y.' And so do you, I expect.

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The Biscuit, a small cafe in Somerville, used to have a sign on the door claiming that their food was "chemical-free".

I ate there once. It was very bland, and I left just as hungry as I went in.

(Thanks, I'll be here all week)

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and a sexist man at that could miss why a woman might return a drink to a bartender because it tasted "chemical-y." Of course, as was already said to you, I suspect it's willful.

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I assume they're inferring his intent from the choice of materials. You can't make a real pipe bomb out of PVC pipe: it's not strong enough to build up enough pressure, and it doesn't generate the sort of shrapnel that makes pipe bombs so dangerous. It's still dangerous, but probably not much more dangerous than the chemicals he was messing with.

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He's one of those guys that gets off on having his own personal arsenal, but doesn't really have any plans to use them against people.

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Collecting without obtaining permits and building bombs is usually indicative of someone not interested in legit activity.

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We just celebrated July 4th, a holiday for which many Massachusetts residents illegally import explosives into our state and use them...

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He pleaded not guilty to all changes. There are multiple witnesses who saw the explosion and saw him come out of the building t looking like he had just been in an explosion and heard him explain it was alright because he was alright, Why did he have unlicensed firearms?

Evans can say we have no evidence his bomb making was tied to a terrorist plot. He can't it wasn't. ATF and FBI are investigating.

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2 guns and 100 rounds isn't much of an arsenal. That's like one box of bullets for each gun? Doesn't sound like much.

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... from rolling my eyes so hard.

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They must already know that he's not left handed thus no sinister plot.

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There is a programmer who lives in Prague with the same name. A cursory Facebook search shows there are other people with the same name.

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I feel bad that you had to explain to us that some people have the same name.

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I think we're mainly concerned with any Boston-based Tomas Mikulas.

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Mikula is a Polish and Czech nickname for St. Nicolas. So about as common as Nichols or Nicholson.

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Maybe, but are there this many guys with the same name all living in Eastie?

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But at least one person tried to post a link to a resource maintained on a programming site that seemed to belong to the guy in Prague, not the guy on Webster Street.

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I tried googling 'Adam Gaffin arrested' to post a false result as a lark but you've spammed the results what with your years of crime blogging.

Well played sir.

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... at least now we have more insight into Adam's motivation.

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Kid is Slovak. Know the family well.

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Young, white and pissed off? Explosives and guns are for losers. Buy a guitar and start a punk band . .

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at a fancy French restaurant in Boston,

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he was working on the ultimate cocktail.

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This episode could even be a selling point in some establishments. “This cocktail is so powerful it has been investigated by Homeland Security. While the bartender was working on it, his apartment exploded.”

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- Boston Latin School (not sure if graduated) ~ either way, *groan,* why you gotta be like that?
- Sergeant, 3rd Ranger Bn - US Army
- University of Texas San Antonio (again, not sure if graduated)
- Projects Consultant - Subcontractor - US DEPT OF DEFENSE (!)
- And last, but not least, Lead Bartender - Bistro Du Midi

Assuming the above is true and not made up.. It's just so interesting.

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Islamic jihad Tsarnaev brothers were European too.

My question remains, Boston Police have an excellent bomb squad and highly trained explosive/gunpowder K9s.

Why was the FBI needed when Mayor Walsh has ordered BPD not to cooperate with the feds under "sanctuary city" policy? Very, very unusual in a regular city, never mind a sanctuary. MA has plenty of state laws that would put this person away for life. As for the media, I'll quote Phil Collins and Genesis. "Is anybody listening? There's no reply at all, no reply at all."

Commissioner Evans comment that "this kid was just playing with powder" is outrageous. If this was a Sesame Street event, why FBI?

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plot. ATF and FBI are investigating. It's a big conspiracy to investigate before calling the suspect a terrorist,

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A guy was killed by BPD on suspicion that he might be a terrorist.

He hadn't bombed anyone - just had a "funny" name.

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Name?

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And it isn't relevant when (yet again) we have a native-born white guy building bombs.

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