Georgian grenade suspect held by police after shoot-out
TBILISI, Georgia -- Georgian police yesterday detained a man suspected of throwing a live grenade during a rally at which President Bush spoke in May, the Interior Ministry said. The capture came after a shoot-out in which one officer was killed and another wounded.
The shoot-out and detention occurred last evening in the village of Vashlisdzhvari, outside the capital, Tbilisi, ministry spokesman Guram Donadze said. The suspect fled into the woods but was later detained, Donadze said.
Rustavi-2 television showed pictures of a dark-haired man it described as the suspect being hustled into a car by police officers. It said he was wounded, and identified him as Vladimir Arutyunov, in his late 20s.
The man lived in an eight-story apartment building with his mother, Rustavi-2 reported, citing neighbors as saying Arutyunov was unemployed. The report could not immediately be confirmed.
Eric Zahren, a spokesman for the US Secret Service, said the agency is monitoring the investigation by the Georgian authorities.
''We were not directly involved and not present" at the arrest, Zahren said.
The police operation occurred two days after authorities released a photograph of a man suspected of throwing the grenade, which failed to explode, at a podium where Bush was speaking May 10 before tens of thousands of people.
President Mikhail Saakashvili was on the podium when Bush spoke, raising the prospect that the grenade could have been directed at him.
Saakashvili, who came to power after the 2003 Rose Revolution that ousted Eduard Shevardnadze, has provoked enmity with his anti-corruption initiatives and insistence on restoring control over two separatist regions.
Bush spoke from behind bulletproof glass, addressing a huge crowd in a main Tbilisi square as part of a visit aimed at cementing relations between the United States and Georgia's new pro-Western leadership.
The grenade landed less than 100 feet from the podium but did not explode. A preliminary investigation indicated the grenade malfunctioned, the FBI said.
