SFPD: Man arrested for detonating explosive device in SoMa

SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) - A man has been arrested for allegedly setting off a homemade explosive in San Francisco over the weekend.

Police say the blast shattered approximately 75 windows of a market on the ground floor and a top floor office in a building in the city’s South of Market neighborhood. 

The explosive was detonated in an alleyway near Second Street here in the City. 
“It was a boom,” said George McCracken. “I didn't really know what to think.”

McCraken was inside his office building about a block away from the blast when he heard the explosion and went to Taber Place near Second Street to investigate its source. 

“I heard an explosion and within five minutes there was a few fire trucks right out front,” he said.
He could crime scene tape blocking off the area when the explosion took place and shattered glass on the ground. 

Not far from the scene, police arrested 37-year-old San Francisco resident Mustapha Math.

Video showed brown paper bags were placed over his hands to preserve evidence that could potentially link him to the explosive device. 

“The type of device that was detonating… we don’t want to go into too great a detail, but it appears to be a homemade type firework,” said Officer Adam Lobsinger, the public information officer with the San Francisco Police Dept. 

Math has been charged with possession of a destructive device, possession of destructive materials, ignition of a destructive device and vandalism and has been booked into the San Francisco County Jail.