Crime

Bombing at NAACP Office in Colorado

Published

12 years ago

January 15, 2015

Courtesy of CNN and news reports

The FBI is investigating an explosion outside the office of NAACP chapter in Colorado.

A makeshift bomb, or improvised explosive device, detonated last Tuesday morning but failed to ignite a gasoline can placed alongside it. No one was injured, but the incident left some shaken in Colorado Springs.

“All of a sudden I heard this big boom,” one witness said. “There was smoke everywhere; the building on the side was burnt.”

The witness continued: “Whoever did it took off right away though. That’s all I heard, and it was scary.”

The FBI’s Denver office said it’s looking for a balding man, about 40, who was seen leaving the scene in a white pickup with a missing or covered license plate.

Another witness, Julie Skufca, who saw a man drive away calmly.

“(It) kind of made your heart stop, especially when you have kids,” she said.

“He was a heavier white man with what looked like a (Carhartt jacket),” she added. “Just driving normal like it was a normal day.”

The FBI has not said if the NAACP was targeted. But some pointed out that the other building tenant, Mr. G’s Hair Design Studios, likely was not.

“Who would want to bomb a beauty salon?” one member of the local NAACP chapter said.

Henry D. Allen Jr., the branch’s president, also raised the specter of a targeted attack, saying, “Apparently, we’re doing something correct. Apparently, we have gotten someone’s attention that we are working toward civil rights for all. That is making some people uncomfortable.”

The NAACP is the nation’s oldest civil rights organization. The group’s national office says it is looking forward to a “thorough investigation” into the explosion by national and local authorities.

“We’re looking at all possible motives, not just specifically that the NAACP was targeted, although that is one possible motive,” said FBI Special Agent Amy Sanders, who noted that there was both a barbershop and tax services office nearby. “There could be any number of reasons.”

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AG Bonta Announces Action on Cryptocurrency, Sextortion Fraud – Increasingly Targeting Gen-Z

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is warning residents about a surge in cryptocurrency fraud and online sextortion schemes that increasingly target Gen Z through social media platforms. With internet-based scams costing Americans nearly $21 billion in 2023, Bonta highlighted how artificial intelligence and deepfakes allow criminals to impersonate loved ones and promote fraudulent investment groups. The Attorney General’s Office has already shut down over 100 fraudulent websites and is now utilizing new legislative tools to recover assets for victims. Read more.

Published

1 week ago

November 3, 2026

Post News Group

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

California Attorney General Rob Bonta warned residents about rising cryptocurrency fraud and online sextortion scams, urging Californians to recognize warning signs and protect themselves as scammers increasingly target younger people through social media.

Speaking at a news conference on Oct. 19, Bonta said Americans lost $20.9 billion to internet-based scams in 2025, including $11.4 billion to cryptocurrency scams. He said artificial intelligence, deepfakes, and malicious smart contracts have made fraud easier to carry out and more difficult to detect and prevent.

While older Californians remain targets, Bonta said his office has seen a sharp rise in reports of Gen Z consumers being targeted on platforms such as Twitch, TikTok, and Instagram.

One growing scheme involves so-called rug-pull scams, in which fraudsters promote low-priced stocks or volatile cryptocurrencies through online investment groups and streaming communities. After generating interest and driving up prices, scammers sell their holdings, causing values to collapse and leaving investors with losses.

Bonta also warned about sextortion, in which scammers trick or coerce victims into sharing explicit images before threatening to distribute them to friends and family unless they pay. He advised victims not to give in to demands, saying scammers often do not release the images when victims refuse to pay. Instead, he recommended ignoring and blocking the perpetrators.

Another scheme, known as recovery fraud, targets people who have already lost money to cryptocurrency scams. Fraudsters impersonate blockchain recovery specialists or law enforcement officials and demand additional payments while promising to recover stolen assets.

Bonta urged Californians to be skeptical of promises of large returns on small investments, fake cryptocurrencies resembling established ones, and celebrity endorsements that may have been generated using artificial intelligence. He also warned that scammers can use AI to impersonate loved ones through manipulated video and audio.

“Never use a crypto ATM,” Bonta said, emphasizing that transactions can be difficult to trace and reverse and that the machines lack adequate consumer protections.

His office has shut down more than 100 fraudulent websites over the past two years that collectively scammed victims out of at least $8.3 million, he said.

Bonta also highlighted Senate Bill 1208, which he said was recently signed into law. The measure allows law enforcement to petition a court to return seized cryptocurrency to victims, including when alleged perpetrators are outside U.S. jurisdiction.

Residents who have fallen victim to scams can report them to the California Department of Justice at oag.ca.gov/report.

Bonta also urged victims not to feel embarrassed, stressing that scammers are responsible for the harm they cause.