Published: July 11, 2009 01:48 am      

Police implode homemade bomb in Floyds Knobs residence

A convicted felon was arrested Thursday after police located a pipe bomb, drugs and an illegal gun in his Floyds Knobs home.

Zhale S. Penn III, 51, faces preliminary charges of class C felony possessing a destructive device and class D felony possession of a sawed-off shotgun, and misdemeanor charges of possession of marijuana less than 30 grams and possession of drug paraphernalia.

According to police, he could potentially face federal charges.

Floyd County Sheriff Darrell Mills said Penn gave his officers consent to search his home, located on the 5300 block of Navilleton Road in Floyds Knobs. Mills said the first thing the officers noticed when they entered was a sawed-off shotgun, which is illegal.

They also found a five-inch piece of PVC pipe that had black powder inside and a green fuse device. Mills said Penn never told officers why he had the homemade bomb, but Mills said it is a very serious safety concern.

“It could cause death to a person depending how close they are,” Mills said when asked how much damage a pipe bomb that size could cause. “If the device was detonated inside a car, it could blow all the doors off the car.

“So you can imagine what it would do to a person.”

The Indiana State Police bomb squad imploded the device at the residence. Mills said police also located “several pipe bombs that appeared ready to be made.” Those materials were taken into evidence.

Less than 30 grams of marijuana and drug paraphernalia were confiscated.

Officers with the Floyd County Sheriff’s Department and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, were following up on a domestic disturbance case from May 2008 that involved a firearm.

Mills said an ATF officer was reviewing the report from the incident and noticed that Penn is a convicted felon. It is illegal for a convicted felon to carry a firearm.

Mills said Floyd County police never ran a background check on Penn after the domestic disturbance case because a case file was never opened. Mills said they requested Penn’s consent to search his home with the intention of looking for the firearm.

From 2001 until 2002, Penn served more than six months in the Department of Correction on burglary and criminal confinement charges in Scott County.

Penn is being held in the Floyd County Jail awaiting official charges from the prosecutor’s office.