A hand grenade that was found near the site where U.S. and Georgian Presidents addressed tens of thousands Georgians on May 10 from Freedom Square appeared to be “a live device that simply failed to function,” Bryan Paarmann, legal attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Georgia who also leads the FBI office in Tbilisi, said at a news conference on May 18.
“We consider this act to be a threat against the health and welfare of both the President of the United States and the President of Georgia, as well as to the multitude of Georgian people that turned out at this event,” Bryan Paarmann.
Shortly after the news broke about the grenade late on May 10 both U.S. and Georgian officials stated that grenade posed no threat to the Presidents.
At a joint news conference with the Georgian Deputy Interior Minister, Paarmann further elaborated that the hand-grenade did not explode “due to a light strike on the blasting cap induced by a slow deployment of the spoon activation device.”
Both Georgian and American experts are inspecting this device and a detailed report will be completed. The FBI is leading this investigation from the American side in cooperation with the Georgian Interior Ministry.
“We urge anyone that saw the device being thrown or has any information about the person who threw this hand grenade to contact the Georgian authorities, in order that together we may bring the perpetrator that threatened the lives of so many people to justice,” Bryan Paarmann said.
The Georgian Interior Ministry has already offered 20,000 Lari (approximately USD 10,900) as a reward for valuable information.
The FBI official also said at a news conference in Tbilisi that the grenade was wrapped in a dark handkerchief, which was thrown in a crowd just 30 meters away from the stage where the U.S. and Georgian Presidents made their public speeches.
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