Sheriff's Office installs concrete blocks to halt possible car bomb attack

Visitors to the Lorain County Sheriff's Office and county jail on Murray Ridge Road in Elyria can see new security measures set up to prevent a car bomb attack: Concrete barriers in front of the main entrance. Sheriff Jack Hall, a Republican, said the work was done based on intelligence recently provided to U.S. sheriffs by the federal Department of Homeland Security, or DHS. Hall said DHS officials told him and other sheriffs who attended the National Sheriff's Association 2025 annual conference in June that foreign and domestic terrorist "chatter" that intelligence agencies were hearing discussed attacks on U.S. civilian targets. The conference took place a day after U.S. armed forces bombed several Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22. Possible retaliatory attacks included attacks on summer gatherings in the U.S., then further bombings at police stations, fire stations and government buildings, Hall said. The sheriff, who took office at the beginning of the year, said one of his early security concerns was how visitor parking outside his offices was set up. "We didn't like the way the parking was set up. The first thing I thought was, 'Someone can pull a car up and blow the building up,'" Hall said. He said the Lorain County Engineer's Office provided several used concrete barriers that were installed in front of the visitor's entrance that could help stop a car. The work took five days, Hall said. Americans with Disabilities Act-accessible parking and employee parking will remain, with the addition of some landscaping. Landscaping costs normally are paid from the county's general fund, but Hall told the county commissioners on Aug. 12 that Lorain County Common Pleas Recovery Court under the direction of Judge Giovanna Bremke helped spruce up and beautify the area as a community service project. Alvarado Landscaping helped finish the project, at a cost of $13,810 that Hall paid with Sheriff's Office discretionary funds, not from the county general fund. The idea that someone might target local police in a bomb attack isn't far-fetched: Michael J. Parker opened fire July 23 on two Lorain police officers having lunch on River Bend Drive in Lorain, fatally wounding Officer Phillip Wagner and wounding officers Peter Gale and Brent Payne, both of whom survived. Parker was shot and killed by other officers in an incident that remains under investigation by the Elyria Police Department. Hall said 100 pounds of commercially-available explosives found in Parker's car that were safely detonated by authorities. "We still don't know what his intentions were," Hall said. Hall said he'll be talking with county officials about making buildings safer from attack, and with Lorain County police chiefs about protecting their stations as well. His office also is in the process of choosing a deputy to handle a new bomb-sniffing K-9 being bought with donated funds. Once trained, that handler team will be used to search county buildings for bombs, Hall said. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.