Suspects in Smoke Bombing Freed

A man arrested last week in connection with a “stink bomb” attack in a Torrance church has been released from custody.

Larry Wayne Mitchell, 27, was released from jail Monday. A 17-year-old youth arrested with him had been released earlier.

“We don’t have the evidence right now to file charges against them,” Lt. Wally Murker, commander of the Torrance police detective division, said Tuesday. Murker said the two remain suspects.

Torrance police arrested Mitchell and the youth April 4 at the youth’s home in Bell Gardens and held them on suspicion of setting off a smoke bomb during a March 24 sermon at the Tetelestai Christian Center. The youth’s name was not made public.

Torrance police said last week that Mitchell and the youth may be linked to other smoke bomb attacks. Searches of Mitchell’s car and the youth’s home turned up material resembling some of the materials used in other attacks, police said.

Investigators are now awaiting results of laboratory tests comparing the substances police found last week to that used in the Tetelestai smoke bomb, Murker said.