Suicide bomber levels Pa. home in possible revenge attack
An alleged suicide bomber leveled a Cambria County home Tuesday morning and injured two of its occupants after blowing himself up inside a truck parked outside, according to a report from The Altoona Mirror.
Police said Bradley Kollar, 40, of Hastings, Pa. detonated explosives shortly before 9 a.m. inside a truck parked near a home on the 800 block of Kepshire Road. A coroner has ruled his death a suicide.
The home Kollar was apparently targeting was leveled to its foundation. Its owner, per property records obtained by The Mirror, is 44-year-old William Shaner, who was one of the two people injured in the blast.
Shaner was flown to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh and was in critical condition Tuesday night.
A teenage male was reportedly inside the house with Shaner during the explosion, but his name and condition have not been released.
There is not yet word on a motive for the crime, but sources told The Mirror that Kollar blamed Shaner for his arrest last year during a raid of an alleged chop shop operation inside Kollar’s family home.
Police arrested both Kollar and his father, John Andrew Kollar, during the bust and reportedly recovered a number of stolen vehicles, as well as chemicals possibly intended for use in meth manufacturing.
Court documents show Kollar was due in Cambria County Court for sentencing Tuesday morning after pleading guilty in January to a misdemeanor chemical possession offense and a felony count of transferring vehicles obtained from a chop shop, which carries a maximum sentence of more than 10 years in jail.
Authorities continue to investigate the blast, which was initially coded to first responders as a meth lab explosion. Pennsylvania State Police are expected to release more information during a press conference this afternoon.
