Arleigh McCree

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Detective Arleigh McCree

Detective Arleigh E. McCree (24 December 1939 – 8 February 1986) was the Officer in Charge of the Firearms and Explosives Unit of the Los Angeles Police Department and counter-terrorism specialist, widely recognized as one of the top explosive experts in the world.

McCree investigated the Symbionese Liberation Army bomb making operations in 1976 and was part of the bomb squad that investigated the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983. A year later, McCree headed the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics bomb squad. McCree had written a text on explosive devices. In 1982 he testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism. He said government manuals on how to make bombs were too easy for terrorists to get.

McCree is reported to have been offered him $140,000 by Col. Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya to train terrorists in the use of explosives. McCree was also a contributor to Military Police magazine. McCree was killed along with officer Ronald Ball in a 1986 bomb disposal operation in Hollywood, California. The two had been attempting to defuse two pipe bombs in a murder suspect's garage when the bombs exploded.

He is honored among the fallen officers in the line of duty at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C.