Chlorine bomb detonated outside gate

<p class="indent">A former Fort Polk soldier was sentenced to 135 months on Monday for the creation of a chlorine bomb he detonated outside of the installation’s gates last year, injuring investigators at the scene.</p><p class="indent">Ryan Keith Taylor, 25, was sentenced by a federal judge in Lafayette to the maximum sentence of just over 11 years after accepting a plea deal in June for producing, possessing and using a chemical weapon in violation of federal law. He will also receive five years of supervised release.</p><p class="indent">Child pornography images were also found inside Taylor’s apartment in New Llano during a search conducted after the incident on April 12, 2017, by Vernon Parish detectives and members of the FBI and the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command, however those charges were dropped in accordance with the plea deal.</p><p class="indent">Had he not pleaded guilty, officials say Taylor could have faced life in prison.</p><p class="indent">Sgt. Joshua Farbro, the lead investigator called to the scene where Taylor had set off the bomb, testified at the hearing the extent of his injuries after his exposure to the chemicals Taylor combined in his explosive.</p><p class="indent">Farbro told Judge Jay C. Zainey that after scraping samples of the substance into a plastic evidence bag, the bags immediately inflated and “popped” while his latex gloves started “melting” from his hands. Farbro collapsed at the scene before he and other detectives were rushed to Fort Polk’s Bayne Jones Army Community Hospital.</p><p class="indent">Farbro has since been left with only 20 percent lung capacity after the chemicals he inhaled destroyed his throat and lung tissues. He was medically discharged, and his promising military career ended, at the age of 24.</p><p class="indent">U.S. Attorney David C. Joseph said in a news release announcing the sentence that the chemical weapon Taylor created is banned under international and national laws “because of its terrible effects on the human body.”</p><p class="indent">“Today’s sentence holds Taylor accountable for his crime and makes clear that we will not tolerate such conduct,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers stated in the release.</p><p class="indent">Farbro said during the hearing, Taylor requested he and another injured investigator stand so he could apologize directly to them. Farbro said he took the apology as “sincere,” but is still left to cope with life after sentencing.</p><p class="indent">“Right now, I think that it’s going to take some time for me to process everything and truly decide how I feel about it all,” Farbro said. “I have had to start all over in my life now and continue to cope with my injuries every day. This will always be with me.”</p>Fort Polk Sign<a href="mailto:news@americanpress.com"> Special to American Press </a>