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Patrick Wagner, Minot, charged with setting off pipe bomb

Patrick Michael Wagner, 36, Minot, is accused of setting off a pipe bomb and starting a fire near 19th Street NE at 5:17 p.m. on Monday, April 7.

He is charged in district court in Minot with Class B felony endangering by fire or explosion and Class C felony possession of a bomb.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed with the court, an officer with the Ward County Sheriff’s Office saw a fire in a roadside ditch at 55th Street NE in the area of 19th Avenue NE on Monday. She saw a gray 1990s model GMC Sierra Pickup with a ladder rack leaving the scene of the fire. She then turned around and heard an explosion from the fire. The Minot Rural Fire Department put out the fire.

On Tuesday, another officer found an empty container without labeling at the scene that is consistent with a gunpowder container.

On Wednesday, the Minot Bomb Squad analyzed the scene and found fragments of a pipe bomb, including a fragment with a partial UPC label. On Thursday, another officer determined that the fragment came from a 10-inch galvanized pipe of the type that is sold at Menards in Minot. Menards had sold the pipe on Monday to a man who was driving a pickup matching the description of the vehicle at the scene of the fire. Scheels had sold a one pound container of gun powder on Monday to the same man.

Further investigation revealed that a man matching that description had been staying at the home of the owner of the GMC Pickup in southwest Minot.

Wagner was arrested on Thursday evening and was scheduled to make an initial appearance on the charges on Friday in district court in Minot.

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