KTVU.com
UPDATED: 8:53 p.m. PST March 21, 2003
SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco arson investigators removed 12 Molotov-type cocktails on Friday from a backpack discovered by a groundskeeper cleaning up debris left by anti-war protesters in a downtown alley way.
The investigators carefully removed the homemade devices — consisting of old liquor bottles filled with gasoline and having a wick — and fingerprinted them. Police said the site where the devices were found was an area near 11th and Howard that had been traversed several times by a rather violent group demonstrators during Thursday’s protests.
Police said they had obtained a security videotape showing two men throwing the backpack into bushes in the alley. They have given officers on the street photos of the two men and are hopeful they will be found in the crowds of protesters gathering on San Francisco’s streets Friday night.
San Francisco police spokesman Dewayne Tully said officers had also discovered collection of rags, lighter fluid, and “other materials to make incendiary objects with” in front of the Four Seasons Hotel.
“What we suspect is that protesters were carrying these objects, knew they would be arrested at some point, and ditched them,” he said.
