Pennsylvania suicide bomber levels landlord's home in supposed act of revenge

A 40-year-old Pennsylvania man who was out on bond strapped himself into a suicide vest on Tuesday and blew himself up outside his landlord's house, killing himself and injuring two others in a blast that leveled the building. According to Pittsburgh's WPXI Channel 11, Brad Kollar was due in court Tuesday morning on charges of running an automobile chop shop and of possessing bomb-making materials.

Police told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Kollar drove his pickup truck to the house of William Shaner in Clearfield Township and detonated a homemade fertilizer bomb. Shaner was critically injured, his teenage son less severely.

Kollar, who was charged in Cambria County Court with running a chop shop with his father John Koller, 64, reportedly believed that his landlord was a police informant. Kollar had tangled with authorities in the past, with arrests on record for operating a drug lab and possession of bomb-making materials.

Police told the Post-Gazette that Koller had created bombs and professional fireworks in the past and was missing an arm from an accident with explosives years ago. Federal and state agents, including officers from the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said they expect to be on the scene for at least a week, sifting through the rubble and gathering evidence.

Watch video about this story, which aired Wednesday, March 20 and is embedded below via WPXI, Pittsburgh: