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Some residents complain about being unable to enter or leave neighorhood
September 23, 2010 (10:15 p.m.) – Connie Hoagland, a day care worker and wife of Larry Hoagland,, is the woman injured in tonight’s car explosion in Rancho San Diego, according to an e-mail sent by Pastor Jim Garlow of Skyline Church. “Connie was rushed to an area burn center and is going into the operating room,” he wrote at 7 p.m.
“Based on reports we have heard at this time, both legs are broken and her left foot has injuries as well.” Her injuries are not life threatening, he said, then asked for prayers for the Hoaglands, both parishioners at Skyline.
ECM news partner 10 News confirms that the vehicle was registered to Connie Hoagland. The Hoaglands had a bankruptcy hearing on Tuesday and were ordered by a judge to continue making mortgage payments to their lender, according to 10 News.
According to Jan Caldwell, the Sheriff’s public information officer, it is not yet confirmed whether the explosion was a car bomb or a major major malfunction of the vehicle. Sheriff’s deputies, the Metro Arson Strike Team, the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force are investigating, though terrorism is not suspected, Caldwell told 10 News.
“I heard a loud, very close explosion,” Beverly Brodsky told East County Magazine. Brodsky lives on a street behind Via Hacienda, where the incident occurred. She said Sheriff’s officials knocked on her door and advised her to get out “since the bomb squad was going to search the house on the street directly behind me,” but that the evacuation of her home was not mandatory.
Some neighbors are now complaining about being locked out of their neighborhood or if inside, prevented from leaving. Barbara Cummings, who lives on Via Hacienda, said Sheriff's officials were "unreasonable, belligerent and uncommunicative...It’s been five hours and they’re not letting anybody in or out. I’m really upset because we have a friend visiting and he has a son home now in Chula Vista who is eight. His elderly grandmother is there, but she has Alzheimer’s. It’s insane not letting this man out of here.”
Cummings said that she and her daughter have both called the Sheriff’s office but got no help from a dispatcher. Others are also inconvenienced, she said. “An elderly man is standing out in the cold. He needs to get home. He’s been standing there for five and a half hours,” Cummings told ECM at around 10 p.m. “There were also two Mexican guys working in the yard; they were pushed out behind the crime tape when it happened and they are standing out in the cold. They need to go back to Tijuana; they can see their van right on the other side of the street…There’s another way out of here that they won’t let people go, and it’s not by the bomb.”
Lt. Munson at the Sheriff’s media line expressed doubt over Cummings story initially. He noted that an evacuation center has been set up at Cuyamaca College where people can go indoors and receive food and blankets provided by the Red Cross. Asked about the plight of the father and residents unable to leave, he said, They won’t let anybody out of there because they are still looking for evidence.” He suggested the concerned father call Chula Vista Police and ask them to do a welfare check on his son and the boy’s grandmother.
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