A man drove an explosives-laden vehicle through the front entrance of the Multnomah Athletic Club in Portland, Oregon in the early hours of Saturday morning, causing the significant damage to the 135-year-old building before dying in the vehicle as it caught fire. No other injury was reported.
Portland Police has now identified the driver.
Who was Bruce Whitman?
Portland Police confirmed on Monday that the suspect was Bruce V Whitman who was 49 from Portland, as per The Oregonian.
Whitman had previously worked as a bartender at the exclusive club more than a decade ago before being fired and his family said he had harbored a deep grudge against his former employer.
His mother, Rita Lenzer spoke to OPB in an interview. “With mental illness, it’s really a tough thing to understand, and I don’t really understand,” she said. “I don’t even know that he remembers doing some things, but a part of him has to plan and think of this. There’s so much hate there.”
Family members said Whitman’s mental health began to deteriorate following a motorcycle accident several years ago that resulted in severe brain damage. “Head-on collision, so there’s been some brain injuries,” Lenzer told OPB. “Just bad luck for him.”
In February, Whitman also attempted suicide and was admitted to the Unity Center in Portland for several weeks where he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, per OPB.
His cousin, Ric Loza, told OPB he believes Whitman should have been kept in care for longer. “He should be locked up right now and getting care. But the system failed him and luckily didn’t fail somebody else with their life because of his actions,” Loza said.
Despite the darkness of his final act, those who knew Whitman described a complicated man. His family noted that he kept a food pantry outside his North Portland home, fed homeless people and sometimes allowed them to stay at his house.
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Bruce V Whitman: All we know about Multnomah Athletic Club attack
Just before 3am local time on Saturday, Whitman drove a rented vehicle through the glass windows at the front of the MAC building, per OPB. Athletic club employees had reportedly seen the vehicle slowly circling the building before the crash, according to CBS News. Once inside, he drove around the ground floor attempting to set off explosions before dying in the vehicle as it caught fire.
The scale of what he had prepared was alarming. Investigators found 20 propane tanks , none of which detonated and approximately 10 improvised explosive devices, some of which had partially gone off, per CBS News. Robots were used to recover and detonate the remaining devices. Receipts for the components of the explosive devices were found at Whitman’s home, per CBS News. No firearms were discovered there.
“Based on the preliminary investigation, detectives believe the driver intentionally entered the building with the intent to deploy explosive devices,” Portland Police said in a statement.
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Did Whitman act alone?
Police confirmed Whitman acted alone and that the incident was not an act of terrorism.
Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez reflected on the broader implications of the case in a statement. “Whitman was a son, a brother, and a neighbor. He was also a man who turned a car into a weapon of mass destruction. We can hold space for a grieving mother while being clear-eyed about the consequences and dangers of untreated mental illness,” he said, per CBS News.
“We need more than just the power to seize weapons; we need the power and resources to sustain treatment for those in crisis. This incident is a sobering reminder that mental health crises don’t just happen in a vacuum, they have a public safety footprint.”
