By ANGELA WEAVER
Staff Writer
ST. MARYS — After two detonation devices were found in the city Tuesday, the police department has a suspect in custody.
Tuesday morning started off peacefully until a call came into the St. Marys Police Department describing a black bag found by a pump at the St. Marys Marathon on South Street containing a suspicious device.

A member of the Allen County Bomb Squad procures evidence from the scene of a bomb scare in the parking lot of the St. Marys Marathon Tuesday morning.

St. Marys Police Chief Greg Foxhoven, St. Marys Fire Chief Ken Cline and Superintendent Mary Riepenhoff held a press conference Tuesday afternoon in the garage at the Fire Department.
The department received the phone call at 9:12 a.m., Foxhoven said at the conference.
"We had an individual in mind who quickly became the focus," Foxhoven said.
Officers were able to identify Jesse B. McDermitt, 18, from the Marathon station's surveillance video.
"He walked up, set it down, made an attempt to cover his face and walked away," Foxhoven said of the scene captured on the video in which McDermitt was wearing the same clothing he wore when he was picked up by the police. "He was wearing the same red coat when we went to his house."
A customer at the Marathon picked up the black backpack and brought it inside, thinking someone had left it by the pump on accident. When the employees opened the bag looking for an i.d., they saw the device and notified the police department.
The police department sent officers who then placed the device in the dumpster and contacted the fire department and the Allen County Bomb Squad.
"While the bomb squad was on its way, I went over to the school and met with Mary (Riepenhoff) and discussed the options they had," Cline said. He said the device was an incinerating device intended to burn.
"We knew SMPD was in contact with the Allen County Bomb Squad describing the devices," he said, adding that they knew it was a detonation device with the information they received from the bomb squad. "We felt it was safe to leave the kids at the high school."
Riepenhoff then instituted a lockdown of the high school and middle school and school officials combed the inside and outside of the building for other possible devices.
"We did not find anything that looked suspicious or out of the ordinary," Riepenhoff said.
She initiated the lockdown through the lunch periods and lifted it at 1:20 p.m.
"The biggest difference we had was he had to cook many more lunches," she said, adding that the Marathon station is one of the popular lunch spots for the students.
While the fire department waited for the bomb squad to arrive, Foxhoven, police officers and an Auglaize County probation officer went to McDermitt's residence at Townview Terrace Apartments on Greenville Road.
"While we were taking him into custody, during the patdown, we felt a bulge in his coat," Foxhoven said, adding that there was another device strapped to McDermitt's body.
The officers were able to detach the device and take it to a dumpster, as well as evacuate the apartments adjacent to McDermitt's apartment.
Foxhoven said McDermitt is being held on unrelated charges and they are in the process of applying for a search warrant for McDermitt's apartment.
"If we obtain the warrant, we can have a total search of his apartment where we believe he made the devices," Foxhoven said.
Foxhoven said the department has had recent dealings with McDermitt and were currently in the process of interrogating him. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, the bomb squad and the Auglaize County Sheriff's Office, who were on the scene, will also interview McDermitt. He said the department is in the early stages of investigation and could not provide a motive at the time.
On the way to take McDermitt to a holding facility, the officers stopped at Joint Township District Memorial Hospital, which a supervisor at the scene suggested because of McDermitt's demeanor. Foxhoven said McDermitt is currently being held at the Auglaize County Jail.
"He's not going anywhere," Foxhoven said.
The device at Marathon was disabled around noon and the device at the apartment was disabled soon after that.
Cline said the city has had bomb threats but none like this in the past.
"We've had bottle bombs but nothing with a detonation device," he said.
Cline said he thought the city did "very well" in the situation.
"We used the unifying command, knowing it was going to involve everyone," he said. "The safety of everyone involved was the most important thing. It certainly helped to work together as well as we did and having an idea of the person behind it."
St. Marys Public Service and Safety Director Tom Hitchcock said the police department notified him of the situation and he was on the scene at the Marathon.
"I was very proud of the way the city fire department and police department acted," Hitchcock said. "I'm happy no one was hurt, and we have him in custody."
Foxhoven said the department has had similar situations with McDermitt in the past, including a situation in March 2006 with an explosive device at Wapakoneta High School.
For complete coverage, including two additional stories regarding the incident, pick up a copy of Wednesday's The Evening Leader.