Lloyd Woodson Arrested: Man Had Grenade Launcher, Weapons, Maps
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SOMERVILLE, N.J. — A call from a convenience store clerk about a suspicious person led to an arrest and a frightening discovery: The man was wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a loaded assault rifle and four magazines of ammunition.
Back in the man's motel room, authorities found a grenade launcher, more rifles, a night-vision scope and, ominously, a map of the Fort Drum Army base in upstate New York.
Prosecutors have not said what 43-year-old Lloyd Woodson was doing with the arsenal. The FBI said Woodson did not appear to have any connection to terrorist groups.
But the weapons and the map raised questions about whether the former Navy man may have been planning some kind of attack.
Authorities did not say why he had a map of Fort Drum, where active duty and reserve soldiers are trained and deployed. The base is about a 5-hour drive from Branchburg, where Woodson was staying.
An executive for the Quick Chek convenience store chain, based in Whitehouse Station, said the clerk's call "averted a possible problem at our store and certainly averted a problem somewhere else."
Mike Murphy, a senior vice president for the company, said prosecutors asked him not to say what raised the worker's suspicions.
Woodson was jailed on state weapons charges. Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne Forrest would not identify either the military facility or the town shown on the maps, other than to say the community was not in New Jersey.
Federal authorities said Tuesday evening that the military facility on the map was Fort Drum. That disclosure came as they announced they had charged Woodson with possessing guns even though he was previously convicted of a weapons offense.
A New Jersey state judge on Tuesday set bail for Woodson at $75,000, and he appeared in court for an arraignment that lasted only a moment.
Woodson, wearing shackles and a jail jumpsuit, had no lawyer present and spoke only to acknowledge the judge. The prosecutor did not speak and did not take a position on the bail.
Woodson was staying at the Red Mill Inn, a motel along a busy suburban highway that runs through an area with many pharmaceutical companies. It's unclear whether he was living at the motel, which advertises weekly rates, or just passing through.
Prosecutors said his last known address was Reston, Va. But the New York-born man appears to have a string of former addresses in Brooklyn and Queens, as well as Maryland.
The Navy says he enlisted in 1988, deserted a little over a year later and spent eight years on the run before returning briefly to Navy custody in 1997. He was soon discharged.
In their charging documents, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Woodson was convicted in 1997 of illegal weapons possession.
In 2008, Woodson's wife, Tracey Everett, sought a protective order against him in Forestville, Md. In court papers, she said he deserted her and her children months earlier and described a confrontation outside their Forestville home in which "he responded by saying if I did not let him back in I would be sorry."
In a telephone interview Tuesday, Everett said that she does not believe Woodson was going to hurt her, or that he would hurt anyone.
"He's just a loner. He just needs psychological counseling," she said.
Everett said she has not spoken to her estranged husband in more than a year and had tried unsuccessfully to find him to serve divorce papers. She said he kept guns in their townhouse – but only because he was a collector.
"He never put his hands on me," she said. "He's not that type of person."
Shortly before 4 a.m. Monday, an employee at the convenience store near the inn called police to report a man acting suspiciously.
According to court papers, when police arrived, a patrolman saw Woodson acting "extremely nervous" and asked if he was OK.
He responded, "I'm getting some food for my kids," the papers said. He fled a moment later. Police started canvassing the trailer park next door.
They found him lying in bushes. When they ordered him to show his hands, they said, he ran off again. Two officers tackled him and used pepper spray to subdue him.
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Associated Press Writer Matt Barakat in Forestville, Md., contributed to this report.
(This version CORRECTS spelling of convenience store chain, 'Quick Chek' instead of 'Quik Check.')
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GEOFF MULVIHILL 01/26/10 07:10 PM ET Associated Press