Unconfirmed suspect in Arlington house explosion troubled by mental health issues, online history reveals
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA: James Yoo has been named as the suspect in the massive explosion of a home on the 800 block of North Burlington Street in Arlinton, Virginia, according to unconfirmed reports.
Newsweek, citing local news website ARLnow.com, stated that Yoo was listed in the public records as living at the address.
Hearing gunshots from the house, the police came with a search warrant, and the firing continued as they were preparing to enter the property. The house exploded and turned into a massive fireball shortly before 8.30 pm on Monday, December 4.
Daily Mail reported that the neighbors said a man inside was firing flares from the house. However, it remains unclear whether Yoo was inside the house at the time of the explosion, and police are yet to reveal the name of the suspect.
Notably, the massive explosion shook the neighborhood, but no police officers had severe injuries. FBI in Washington was assisting the investigation, reported NBC News, and confirmed fire investigators were also on the scene to help.
James Yoo reportedly battles with mental health issues
As soon as a news source reported the man's name inside the house, a massive online search dug out some creepy details about Yoo.
Multiple people shared screenshots of the suspect's LinkedIn account and his posts on the platform, which were mainly verbal abuses against the police, the government, and even his neighbors.
In one post, he said his neighbors were "spies" who were living under false identities and had been following him since the 1990s to monitor him and report back to their "handlers."
His LinkedIn headline shows his hate against the police and he also quoted Noam Chomsky's saying, "US is the world's biggest terrorist."
Robby Starbuck, a Cuban-American producer and director, delved deep into Yoo's LinkedIn posts (but he has misspelled the suspect's name as James Woo).
According to Starbuck's post, the suspect was known to "the FBI because of his bizarre, incessant emails to US attorneys and government members."
The explosion in Arlington, Virginia has a very creepy backstory. The man involved, James Woo, was known to the FBI because of his bizarre, incessant emails to US attorneys and members of government. He appears to be a far left follower of Noam Chomsky but I don’t think this was… pic.twitter.com/HFe0PsDKSN
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) December 5, 2023
He also shared a copy of Yoo's alleged email to Attorney Kennedy James about the FBI visiting his house. Another screenshot shared by Starbuck is an email he wrote to the FBI, suspecting his wife who forcefully hospitalized him for mental health issues.
The post also said that Yoo believed "media was complicit with the government and seemingly everyone he knew to destroy him."
James Yoo was 'reclusive' says a report
The local news outlet ARLnow.com also cited an unconfirmed source who said the suspect was not a social person.
Alex Wilson, a neighbor who took the video of the explosion, told the outlet that Yoo was a reclusive person and his windows were covered with aluminum foils.
