A New Jersey man was arrested a week before the Boston bombings for carrying homemade explosive devices onto a New York-bound train, and rumor quickly spread that he was a terrorist. However, 27-year old Mykyta Panasenko said they were simply fireworks and that he was taking them to the wooded area near Suffern to detonate for fun.
His roommate apparently wasn’t in on the good times, because he quickly called police after seeing the explosives and “freaking out”. Investigators arrested Panasenko on April 15th on charges of possession of destructive devices and creating a risk of widespread damage, and he was subsequently interviewed by the FBI. The police force later addressed the incident in a statement, saying, “There is no indication at this point of the investigation that he intended to detonate a device in his building or on the transit system.”
Panasenko says he wasn’t aware that the items were illegal and has been highly disturbed by the rumors floating around online that he is a terrorist and was involved in the bombings, though he admits understanding now that it was a bad idea to take explosives onto a train.
“I’m not feeling well,” he said. “After all the stuff I just read about myself online, I almost passed out.”
Now that the story of his arrest has been released, many are wondering why it took so long for the media to grab onto it, or why it was kept so quiet considering the FBI were involved.
