Mother: Accused Marine has 'heart of gold'
By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff
The mother of a US Marine arrested at Logan International Airport for allegedly smuggling weapons in checked luggage described her son today as a dedicated patriot and loving husband.
"I guarantee you he didn't mean anyone any harm," the mother, Sandra Reed, said today in a telephone interview from her home in Winfield, Mo. "This is just a big misunderstanding. I know I’m his mother, but he's got a heart of gold."
Police arrested Marine Corporal Justin W. Reed during a layover Sunday when federal baggage screeners discovered undeclared semiautomatic weapons, ammunition, and bomb-making materials in his checked baggage. Sandra Reed speculated today that her son must have inadvertently packed the weapons, noting that he works with explosives in his military training. The Marine Corps confirmed today that Reed worked with explosives in his position training infantrymen at Twentynine Palms military base in California.
Being absent minded enough to inadvertently pack the weapons was "so out of character" for her son, Sandra Reed said, but it was the only explanation she could muster. Corporal Reed was flying home to Jacksonville, N.C., to surprise his wife for their two-year anniversary, according to his mother. They just had a baby boy a year ago, she said.
"If you met him, you'd like him," Sandra Reed said. "He'd give you the shirt off his back."
Reed enlisted out of high school in 2005 and received a good conduct metal in 2008, according to the Marine Corps. He has not seen combat. The Marine Corps said it is actively investigating the incident.
Reed was in Boston on a layover from Las Vegas and was bound for Charlotte, officials said. The materials in his bags apparently eluded detection at the Las Vegas airport and were discovered in Boston only because baggage handlers inadvertently routed his arriving luggage to baggage claim rather than onto his connecting flight, Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Ann Davis said.
"They put it on the baggage carousel as if he was staying in Boston," Davis said. "Because it was placed on the carousel, which introduced it into a public area, that required TSA to screen it before it was allowed back on a flight."
Davis said the TSA was "actively investigating" why the illicit materials, including fuel and explosives, were not discovered during screening in Las Vegas and loaded onto the cross-country flight.
TSA screeners in Terminal B at Logan called State Police at 7:10 a.m. after they said they discovered the following items in Reed's luggage: a locked gun box containing a semiautomatic handgun; a fully loaded gun magazine; several boxes of 9 mm and 7.62 mm ammunition; three model rocket engines containing an explosive mixture; military fuses; electronics kit boxes with various components; and a hand grenade fuse assembly with detonator.
None of the discovered items, aside from the gun, can legally be checked onto a flight, Davis said, because they could cause an explosion in flight. A handgun can be checked only if it is unloaded, secured in a lock box, and declared by the passenger at check-in, she said.
Reed had not declared the weapon, she said.
Reed was charged with possession of an infernal machine and possession of a concealed weapon in a secure area of an airport, said Sergeant Michael Popovics, a State Police spokesman.
He was booked at the State Police barracks at Logan Airport and held in lieu of $50,000 bail. He will be arraigned at East Boston Municipal Court tomorrow.
Davis said she did not know what flight Reed took to Boston, but the only US Airways flight from Las Vegas arriving in Boston yesterday morning was Flight 66, which left Las Vegas at 10:15 p.m. and arrived in Boston at 6:08 a.m.
Davis said he was booked on US Airways Flight 877, which left Boston at 8:08 a.m. and arrived in Charlotte at 10:36 a.m., airline records show. US Airways declined to comment.
Reed is stationed at Camp Lejeune and was returning to the base, State Police said.
Davis said all checked baggage is screened by TSA at the point of origin. Checked baggage on connecting flights is only screened during a layover if the flight originated outside the United States, she said.
"TSA will work with management in Las Vegas to ascertain how these items were not identified during the screening process at the McCarran International Airport," she said.
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By the time this is over the incompetent authorities of the state will be the laughing stock of this nation. Again.
"heart of gold" and a gun with explosive? Sounds like someone does not know her son well. Tim McVeigh had a heart of gold too I bet.
Yeah, I accidently pack semi-automatic weapons, hand grenandes and bomb-making materials in my luggage sometimes, too. Doesn't everyone?
Hey Bobby,
He had a gun in a locked box. Marines are issued guns.
Model rocket engines are not classified as explosives.
Come on, Bob... you have no facts, no back-up, so why taint this guy with a brush like that, making any comparison to a mass-murderer?
There may be more to the story, probably is, but you do not know what that is. All I am suggesting is to stand back and not be so judgmental until more comes out. As my even more liberal friends say, without hint of irony, "It is bad to be judgmental".
:P
Or it sounds like a soldier who is around firearms and explosives all day every day and wasn't aware how ignorantly panicked civilians are about weaponry. We don't trust our own soldiers to carry around weapons responsibly? Yikes.
Moreover, why doesn't Logan take a look at why it can't route baggage properly?
Hey Carve- what incompetent authorities of the state, you mean the TSA screeners in NV?
he is a us marine ill bet he is better than most!!!! these guys make mistakes like everyone else . but i bet he stands by his mistake and not try bull shiting his way out like all politicians do. my son is in the corps and i have met a bunch of his men and there all great people i'll ride on a plane with justin and his 9mm anytime.
Carve, how is it the MA authorities are to blame here? How about the TSA in Vegas not noticing a bag full of explosives. God forbid if he had a bottle of shampoo in his carry-on, but a Grenade and a loaded Semi, that can get through?
I hope everyone realizes that all the hoops TSA has you jump through now, supposedly because of 9/11, are completly ineffective because the monkeys aren't paying attention anyway
Inadvertently packed? Unbelieveable. But does anyone expect Mom to say anything else?
The incompetent authorities were in Las Vegas not Boston...Boston authorities caught it.
I got picked up for my kids' water pistols. In checked luggage, and no, they didn't get to keep them. This story is scary in its randomness. Go to The Atlantic and read "the things they carried," an article a few months back.
He is a Marine. These sound like things he uses in his line of work which is a reasonable explanation. I don't think he should ever have been charged and now that he has they should continue them without finding and dismiss them. Marines are not the bad guys, they are the ones protecting you from the bad guys. Boston is NOT blameless they took the bag which was supposed to go on a connecting flight, and put in out onto the baggage claim carousel in Boston.
Worst part of the story is a Boston connecting red-eye from Vegas to Charlotte. Is this how we treat our soldiers? :-)
-C
"Reed enlisted out of high school in 2005 and received a good conduct metal in 2008, according to the Marine Corps."
I can see why the Boston Globe (which own Boston.com) is going out of business. He should have received a "good conduct medal" not "good conduct metal". The editors of this website are absolutely retarded. These errors happen every single day. They deserve to be out of the job.
Did he receive a "good conduct metal" or a "good conduct medal"? Amusing mix up given the contents of his bags. :)
Civilians. Tsk. Tsk.
He is probably damaged from all the blood he spilt for corporate profits in Iraq or Afganistan.
I bet he has PTSD and was on his way to "blow off some steam"...
I say hand him over to the CIA and let them subject him to waterboarding for 183 times; he would end up confessing to spawning Satan itself - LOL
You know, it is not uncommon for soldiers, when packing their gear, to mistakenly pack things that they should not have. A semi-auto handgun...oooh...any hand gun is semi auto so that is just for a 'scare' factor and second, it was in his checked luggage..LOCKED. And some fuse assemblies. Yes, he should be slapped on the wrist but this is pretty common in the military so get over it. It is not like he had C4. How big were those model engines? I bet the explosion caused by a can of hairspray would probably be more damaging. So @Leo, yes, these things get inadvertently packed. Who cares? No harm done. Slap him on the wrist and get on with it.
He had a gun in his luggage in the belly of a plane.
He had a rocket engine in his luggage in the belly of a plane.
How could he have harmed anyone?
Thank god he did not try and bring a nail clipper onto the plane!
Let the kid go. This is plain dumb.
Gomer Pyle was a corporal too, wasn't he?Can you spell Leavenworth Sandra? How about DISHONORABLE DISCHARGE?
"This is just a big misunderstanding," [He] "must have inadvertently packed the weapons"... O.K. socks, underwear, shirt, pants, model rocket engines, military fuses, hand grenade fuse assembly with detonator... let's see, what did I forget? Oh yeah, toothbrush and deodorant. Face it Sandra, Your 22 year old kid wanted to impress his friends by building a bomb and blowing something up like the military taught him to. Fortunately the only thing that blew up was his intentions! He's lucky, and so is everyone on that plane!
I inadverently pack automatic weapons all the time..
This is just as interesting as the "alleged pirate" arriving in the USA to get his free dental care and to be fattened up.
Only in America..
He was just getting ready for the 4th of July. An honest mistake.
Hey I worked with this kid in Twentynine Palms and I must say Reed is absent minded and doesn't really think things through all the time. Although I feel he is dumb, and I tell him this all the time, I am 100% sure he did not mean to do any harm. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say he wanted to make some stupid little thing to impress his buddies back in Lejeune but whatever. I know this doesn't excuse his actions and he should recieve disciplinary actions but I believe the fair course of action would be to let the Marine Corps settle this.
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
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