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3 months ago
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New police bodycam video shows the moment a conspiracy theorist blew his Virginia home to pieces.
James Yoo, 56, intentionally used gasoline to set his house on fire, killing him in the process and triggering an explosion that was felt by people miles away.
Arlington County officials showed bodycam video which laid out the sequence of events that led to Yoo's house exploding with multiple police officers in dangerously close proximity.
A portion of the video shows a police car getting its windshield shattered by debris from the explosion, while another depicts an officer getting blown back by the blast and charging away.
Investigators said Yoo, who believed his neighbors were spies who wanted to assassinate him, acted alone and that this explosion wasn't connected to terrorists.
Yoo's home is seen from the vantage point of a cop car parked on his front lawn moments before it erupted into a fireball
Pictured: The split second where the entire home explodes, which authorities said was set by Yoo intentionally
Seconds later, the house comes crumbling down. Investigators said Yoo acted alone and wasn't working with terrorist groups
Officers were sent to Yoo's home on December 4 when an officer in the area heard what sounded like shots.
When he went to investigate and was greeted by several nervous residents by Fields Park, near Yoo's home.
As more distressed calls from neighbors reporting gunfire or fireworks came in, officers determined that flares were being shot out from the back window of duplex on North Burlington Street.
Officers arrived at the duplex where one of the units was owned by Yoo. The occupants of the other side of the duplex were evacuated as police attempted to initiate a dialogue with Yoo, who shot more than 30 flares from his home that night.
Investigators said that they couldn't make contact with Yoo, and throughout the course of the four-hour long confrontation, neighbors told police that he was a recluse that had recently covered his windows with trash bags, WUSA9 reported.
His social media also included bizarre ramblings accusing his neighbors of carrying out surveillance operations on his house and relaying information to US authorities.
The view of the explosion from the rear of the duplex Yoo had barricaded himself inside
A cop is seen on bodycam getting blown back by the sudden explosion. After yelling some obscenities. the officer turns on his heels and runs away
'[Names redacted] and her two children are spies and act as buffers collecting my information and then delivering to their handlers,' Yoo wrote in the unhinged social media entry.
He claimed that they were 'working with the witch and the alien' plotting a 'surprise attack' against him on December 7, the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack.
The posts refer to his ex-wife as a 'witch,' and anti-U.S. slogans including '#F---AMERICA.'
He ranted: 'This is how White people operate and have the luxury of outnumbering all other 'races' by almost 7 to 1 in 'Merica.'
Once authorities learned of some of several anti-government posts, they were able to obtain a search warrant to search his home and recover any weapons that might have been inside.
Yoo refused to back down from his barricaded position inside the house though, and attempts from law enforcement to gain entry by shooting pepper spray and deploying tear gas were unsuccessful, WUSA9 reported.
A cop on a nearby stoop witnesses the explosion at Yoo's home engulfing a police car parked on the lawn
Before the house exploded, Yoo is seen firing flares out the back window, where they landed in a nearby park and elementary school
James Yoo, the Arlington man suspected of triggering an explosion at his Virginia home, was a paranoid conspiracy theorist who believed that the U.S. government wanted to kill him with the help of his neighbors
The house suddenly exploded when officers tried to get in through a window at around 8:25pm.
The resulting inferno didn't kill anyone other than Yoo, whose remains were found the next day, but nearby residents were certainly traumatized.
Emily Saxon, a 30-year-old nurse, said that blast sounded like an 'earthquake' and the shockwaves felt like a car had run through her living room.
Sam Kin, a 25-year-old consultant who lived next door to Yoo, filmed the police trying to coax the 56-year-old out of the house.
He said the explosion was 'traumatizing' after getting hit by the shockwave.
'I am going to see my therapist right now,' Kim told DailyMail.com.
No serious injuries were suffered by police and 60 firefighters responded to combat the flames.
In their search through the rubble on December 5, police found gasoline canisters, three guns, two flare guns, magazines, ammunition and more flares, WUSA9 reported.
Police found gasoline canisters, three guns, two flare guns, magazines, ammunition and more flares
Pictured: The aftermath of the explosion that destroyed Yoo's home
A relative of Yoo told WUSA9 that he had a history of mental illnesses but refused any sort of treatment for his alleged symptoms, which included psychosis, catatonic behavior and paranoia.
Among his other conspiratorial beliefs was the idea that there was a link between 9/11 attacks and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the 2016 election.
That idea of his came out through his submissions in a lawsuit Yoo filed against family members, including ex-wife Stephanie, and Rochester General Hospital for allegedly detaining him against his will.
The suit was thrown out as 'frivolous.'
'Plaintiff believes he is the victim of conspiracy against him by his sister, his ex-wife, and others including RGH. Plaintiff believes, for example, that his sister, ex-wife and RGH conspired to prevent him from obtaining an attorney,' a court document read.
His wife divorced him on March 30, 2017, citing 'the irretrievable breakdown of their relationship.'
Yoo was told to pay her a sum of $80,000 as well as buy her out of her share of their now-destroyed former marital home for the sum of $150,000.
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