Deputies: Man in custody as pipe bomb found at Shepherd home

SHEPHERD, TX (KTRK) -- A man is in custody after a homemade pipe bomb was allegedly found at his home in Shepherd.

San Jacinto Sheriff's deputies said they were called to a home on East Post Oak around 8pm Tuesday night.

Deputies report that 27-year-old Blake Abbey is facing felony charges for making that bomb.

ABC13 spoke with a woman named Tara who lives at Abbey's home.

"I'm shell shocked, nothing like this has happened to me in my entire life so I don't know how to take it," said Tara.

She says the Abbey's girlfriend, two-year-old daughter, they share and his girlfriend's grandmother were all home when Abbey was arrested.

"You never know a person, you never know what a person is capable of." Tara also described the device she saw in the garage and added, "It was the size of a scope you use on a rifle. That is how big it was. He made it inside the scope," said Tara.

Investigators say the rifle scope allegedly made by Abbey had been gutted out and filled with gun powder.

Shrapnel and wires were sticking out of the live pipe bomb device.

"Had it gone off, it would have injured a lot of people and destroyed some property," said Chief Deputy Joe Schultea with the San Jacinto County Sheriff's Office.

Schultea says the Montgomery County Bomb Squad destroyed the device on scene.

Abbey's motives are still being investigated.

"We've ruled out a terrorism nexus, that's obviously in this day and age something we look at real close. We're going to work ATF and Fire Marshal to continue the investigation and make sure we don't have another problem going on," said Schultea.

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