Chattanooga: Families pick up the pieces after bombing

DALTON, Ga. — Marc Phillips stood a few feet away from where a bomb blast burned his father, sent three others to the hospital and killed the man who likely threw it.

Tears welled in his eyes as he looked at the dark green 1994 Toyota Camry his father, Jim Phillips, had driven to work on the previous day. His father remained in critical condition with third-degree burns over his arms and legs, family at his side, as Marc Phillips picked up the pieces of his father’s workplace.

“I didn’t expect anything like this,” he said Saturday as he looked up at the blackened walls of the building.

Shards of glass, splintered wood and the charred remains of office rooms were left as reminders of Friday morning’s bomb blast that rocked the Dalton community.

Police said that Lloyd Sylvester Cantrell, 78, of Beaverdale Road near Varnell, Ga., rammed his SUV containing cylinders of natural gas and containers of gasoline into the law office of McCamy, Phillips, Tuggle and Fordham on West Crawford Street on Friday morning. Police said he then walked behind the building and threw an explosive device at it.

Curtis Kleem said he was inside the building when Mr. Cantrell rammed the front conference room with his green SUV.

He said Mr. Cantrell had some type of pole attached to the SUV and when the vehicle only dented the building Mr. Cantrell got out and ran around to the back side of the building. Mr. Kleem and others started locking doors and barricading entrances.

“I looked out the window, trying to follow where he was,” Mr. Kleem said.

At about the time he saw Mr. Cantrell run around the side of the building, a Dalton police officer pulled up. Then the blast rocked the building, glass exploded out of windows on both floors and the attic. Doors on the opposite side of the house were noticably warped outward Saturday.

Lawyers, family and friends hauled computers, files and any other usable items from the building. Jim Fordham, a partner at the firm, said three other law firms and the city have offered space for the firm to keep working as partners decide what to do with the building.

Mr. Fordham said the building was built in 1923 and the law firm moved in 1965.

“We’ll try to rebuild this building,” he said.

Lloyd Cantrell was in a property dispute with his son, Bruce Cantrell. Sam Sanders, an attorney at the firm, represented Bruce Cantrell in the suit.

When asked about the dispute and the bombing, Mr. Sanders said Lloyd Cantrell had made threats against Bruce Cantrell over the case.

The dispute was over land that Lloyd Cantrell had deeded to his son in the early 1990s, land on which the son said Lloyd Cantrell trespassed and damaged property.

Mr. Sanders said there was a restraining order against Lloyd Cantrell for the last year.

“He was between a rock and a hard place,” Mr. Sanders said.

Through the course of the case, Mr. Sanders said he’d discovered Lloyd Cantrell was collecting federal benefits he wasn’t eligible for if he still claimed the property that he had deeded to Bruce Cantrell.

Though Lloyd Cantrell had threatened Bruce Cantrell, Mr. Sanders said it would have been hard to foresee the bombing.

“How many times in reality does someone fulfill his threats?” he said. “(Bruce) was the only person who took his threats seriously, and it turns out he was right.”

Bruce Cantrell could not be reached for comment.

Mr. Sanders said he’d been in contact with Bruce Cantrell three times Friday and that Bruce Cantrell was concerned about those who were hurt in the blast.

Miles away near Varnell, Lloyd Cantrell’s home is quiet.

A white machine-shed building with a faded white RV in the back and a four-door Ford Mercury sedan sit under a tree in the front yard. The car’s windows are rolled down.

Lloyd Cantrell’s neighbor, Junior Cochran, said the 78-year-old man drove that car up and down nearby roads and would slow to 5 mph if someone drove too close behind, stacking up 30-40 cars behind him.

“He wasn’t the type of person you hated; you just didn’t like him,” Mr. Cochran said.

Mr. Cochran said Lloyd Cantrell regularly got into fights with neighbors and hung around area country stores in his overalls, his Chihuahua named Stud tucked into the front pocket of his overalls.

“That’s the best friend Lloyd ever had,” Mr. Cochran said. “That little dog went everywhere with him.”

Lloyd Cantrell also usually carried a small-caliber pistol with him, Mr. Cochran said.

Farther down the road, Dwight Souther, owner of Dawnville Grocery and Hardware said he knew Lloyd Cantrell about as well as anybody knew him.

Lloyd Cantrell took trips to plastics auctions in South Carolina with Mr. Souther for years and built a hangar on his land for Mr. Souther’s airplane.

“If he liked you, he’d do anything in the world for you,” Mr. Souther said. “But he was kind of bullheaded.”

Mr. Souther said Lloyd Cantrell rarely followed rules and often argued with anyone who tried to tell him what to do.

Lloyd Cantrell came and went at the shop over the years, Mr. Souther said. He had come by more often in the last few years.

“I saw him twice this week, and his health looked bad,” he said.