A pipe bomb and a hand-made gun were found Tuesday near a Sacramento elementary school and authorities were trying to determine who left them and why.
An employee at Ethel Baker Elementary School found the devices sitting on the sidewalk in front of the school and called authorities shortly before 8:30 a.m., the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said.
One device was a steel pipe “sealed at both ends with an improvised fuse” that contained metal shrapnel, clay putty, firecrackers and gasoline, according to a Sheriff’s Office statement.
Also found was a “zip gun” made of a steel pipe with a spring-loaded cap and containing a 12-gauge shotgun shell, the office said.
“It was a real bomb and a real zip gun,” Sgt. Rodney Grassmann told the Sacramento Bee. “They were both loaded and ready to go.”
A sheriff’s bomb disposal team made the devices safe, the statement said.
Grassman said nearly 50 students go to the campus to take part in distance learning, aided by staffers from the Boys and Girls Club.
The school is a learning hub for children who have trouble with distance learning at home.
A Boys and Girls Club staffer spotted the bomb and gun, and the school principal called authorities and turned away students before they could enter the school, Tara Gallegos, a Sacramento City Unified School District spokeswoman, told the Bee.
The school was expected to reopen Wednesday.