Staten Island Bomb Planted to Stop Wedding -Heather DelGuercio

            Omar Duran was a 54-year-old man who lived above a mother and her daughter in a brick apartment on Staten Island. Duran had a special bond with this little girl. He watched her grow up, taught her to ride a bike and played with her.  When the little girl turned ten, the mother was getting engaged. The news of the mother about to be married made Omar crazily jealous. He had always seen himself as a father to the little girl and didn’t want to be replaced once the mother was married.

            The man the woman married was Juan Cruz. Throughout the month people of Staten Island have been spotting bombs all along their streets. The first bomb was found behind a strip mall, ten days later another was discovered by a townsperson, two days after that, the sanitation crew found one in a pile of garbage. Each bomb contained enough explosives to cause a lot of damage and a note written in Spanish that had Juan Cruz’s name on them.

            The police questioned Omar Duran after they were able to trace his car from one of the bombsites. He was accused of several counts of criminal weapon possession and reckless endangerment. The bail was $500,000 and an order to not talk to any of the family members.

            As the wedding approached, Mr. Duran started making even more bombs to try and frame Juan Cruz and stop the wedding. All of the neighbors never thought that Duran would do anything like this. He was always such a friendly person.

            Juan Cruz began moving in, but was interrupted Wednesday night when the police blocked off the house with caution tape.

            “This was a shock-I though, ‘Not Omar, no way,’” Mr DeFilipo said. “But he blew up, I guess. Love hurts. Love’s very painful.”