Woman Arrested In SD Pipe Bomb Investigation Identified

SAN DIEGO -- A woman arrested during an investigation into a powerful pipe-bomb blast that damaged San Diego's downtown federal courts complex two weeks ago was arraigned in court Friday -- but not for that crime.

During a hearing in El Centro, Rachelle Lynette Carlock, 31, answered to a charge of using false identification to buy explosive materials -- namely several pounds of black gunpowder, according to the FBI.

Authorities would not say if Carlock's alleged illegal acts were believed to have any connection to the pipe-bomb attack on the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Courthouse on Front Street. "No person has yet been charged for that crime," the FBI asserted in a statement released Friday afternoon.

An agency spokesman also declined to explain why Carlock's initial court hearing took place in Imperial County instead of San Diego, where the alleged offense occurred.

A federal SWAT team arrested Carlock in the Mountain View district of San Diego on Thursday afternoon, several hours before agents raided a home in that neighborhood and another one in City Heights as part of the bombing probe.

The bombing at the downtown U.S. District Courts complex occurred about 1:30 a.m. May 4.

The involved homemade device, made of several attached tubes packed with some type of explosive material and nails, caused no injuries but damaged a front door and lobby area and broke a window on a nearby building.

The blast was powerful enough to send shrapnel several blocks.

Authorities said at the time that it was unclear if the incident, which prompted a daylong closure of the justice hall the following Monday, was linked to a pipe-bombing that damaged a Federal Express building in the Webster area of San Diego in late April.

In a complaint filed in federal court, Carlock is said to have "furnished a false, fictitious... identification... to a licensed dealer in explosive materials."

Read the full complaint here.