Law enforcement officials in the US have issued a sketch of a suspect in the bombing of the Colorado Springs chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Federal and local officials announced a $10,000 reward for information and released the image of a balding white man at a press conference on Friday.
An improvised explosive device slightly damaged the NAACP office on Tuesday, prompting a nationwide outcry and suspicion of a hate crime and domestic terrorism.
Charge Thomas Ravenelle, an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, declined to speculate about a motive. He said the case was a “bombing investigation” rather than a hate crime or terrorism. “I’m not going to be naive, I know what the NAACP means to some extremists in this country.”
Representatives from the Colorado Springs police, Fountain police, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives attended the news conference.
Earlier this week investigators said they were seeking a balding white male aged around 40 who may be driving a dirty white pickup truck from around 2000 or older which has panelling, a dark-coloured bed liner, open tailgate and a missing or covered licence plate. The sketch released on Friday showed the suspect wearing dark glasses.
The device exploded around 10.40am local time outside the NAACP office, which is in a quiet neighbourhood of Colorado Springs, an hour south of Denver.
The device also slightly charred the external wall of a neighbouring barber shop, Mr G’s Hair Design Studio. It could have been a lot worse: a petrol can placed next to the device did not ignite.
The NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, reopened the office on Thursday. “We’re all fine,” Carol Chippey-Rhanes, a volunteer manning the phones, told the Denver Post. “We’re all good.”
Rita Lewis, the outgoing president of the Denver chapter of the NAACP suspected race hatred lay behind the attack, which came amid African American-led protests over police shootings. “My personal opinion is that it’s a hate crime. It’s cowardly. But unfortunately it seems to be the climate in our country right now,” she said.
She continued: “I’ve never seen anything in my lifetime that was this deliberate. This is reminiscent of the 1960s. Personally, I’m shocked that there are still cowards in 2015 who would do something this hateful.”
In a statement Steve Bach, the mayor of Colorado Springs, called the attack unacceptable. “I expect that law enforcement will work together to solve this crime and bring the responsible individual to justice. There is no place for this type of activity in our city,” he said.
On Twitter some people accused the media of not giving the explosion sufficient attention, saying they heard about it only through social media and that the meagre coverage proved the need for the “black lives matter” campaign.
