WORCESTER, Mass. -- State police arrested two brothers Thursday morning in the attempted bombing of a state police building and several recent grenade explosions in central Massachusetts. Anthony J. DeCillis, 25, and his brother, James, 32, both of Worcester, pleaded innocent in Worcester Central District Court to burglary and possessing and placing explosives.
Prosecutors said James DeCillis has a previous explosives conviction. Both men were ordered held without bail until a pretrial hearing on March 19.
Police are still searching for a third suspect, Daniel Scott, 31, of Grafton.
All three men are accused of breaking into the State Police Crime Prevention and Control Unit in Auburn on Monday and placing a bomb in the building. The unit directs state police investigations for Worcester County District Attorney John J. Conte.
The bomb consisted of a hand grenade with its safety pin removed and plastic explosives attached to a container of gasoline. Investigators said the device had been activated, but for some reason did not explode.
'It was a highly explosive type of device that would have set that place into an inferno,' Conte said.
Prosecutors are also blaming the men for several recent hand grenade explosions in Grafton, which they say may be related to the Auburn incident. No one was injured in those explosions.
A pedestrian found an additional unexploded grenade on a Grafton street Tuesday. Explosives technicians later detonated the rusty device and confirmed that it was live at the time of its discovery.
The district attorney's office has not offered a motive for any of the incidents.
Heavily armed special tacitical units assisted state police when the brothers were arrested. Police feared the men may have had additional explosives on hand.
