ARLINGTON, Va. — Nearly 48 hours after the massive Monday night explosion in an Arlington neighborhood, residents are still processing the dramatic scene that played out right in front of them.
"I am standing there looking at it, and it knocks me back," said David Mitchell who described the boom that was hard for miles around 8:25 p.m.
The Mitchell family lives across the street from where the explosion took place on the 800 block of North Burlington Street.
David Mitchell's wife, Tracy, said she went to elementary school with James Yoo, the 56-year-old man that Arlington County Police say presumably died in the explosion. "He was back then very recluse and everything – didn't do too much," Tracy said Wednesday.
Tracy said it's sad to see someone she grew up with end up this way.
"I wish he would have been able to get help and everything. It's just sad to see that," she said.
David said Yoo showed strange behavior and refused to engage with other residents.
"You would catch him outside, try a say good morning, you know, something like that – see if you get a response – he never did, just rushed off," he told WUSA9.
Police responded to the home around 4:45 p.m. for reports of a man firing a flare gun in the neighborhood. Investigators believe Yoo fired the flare gun more than 30 times from his house into the neighborhood. No injuries or property damage were reported from the shots fired.
As police were attempting to serve a search warrant on the home, police tried to talk to Yoo via telephone and loudspeakers with no response. Police say Yoo remained barricaded inside.
Emergency response team members breached the front door to try and communicate with Yoo, or allow him to surrender himself around 8 p.m. That's when officers heard what they believed to be multiple gunshots from inside the home.
Some of the interaction was captured on Anthony Caligure's Ring camera.
"There was a bunch of cop cars, so I just happened to look through trying to figure out what was going on – heard some loud banging," Caligure said.
Arlington Police Chief Andy Penn said officers could not locate the source of gunfire or its target. The officers deployed chemicals meant to irritate Yoo into surrendering.
The house exploded around 8:25 p.m.
On Tuesday, Penn said that before Monday, his department had no criminal interactions with Yoo except for two calls for service regarding a loud noise over the past couple of years.
Cory Jarvis, who is friends with the family that lived next door to Yoo, said they called him over to listen to a strange machine-like noise coming from the 56-year-old's home.
"He was going non-stop 24/7 for I don't know how many days. He was doing it in the middle of the night when the kids were trying to sleep," he said.
Neighbors say none of Yoo's behavior ever prompted police intervention so they believe there is little law enforcement could do to step in.
However, Jarvis said Yoo's behavior started getting worse when the home he was living in went up for sale.
Property records show the house was last on the market in 2021.
Jarvis said Yoo's neighbors are still recovering and that the two children who live in the home are shell-shocked after losing everything.