{"id":208222,"date":"2026-03-27T11:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T11:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/208222\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T11:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T11:53:09","slug":"safety-experts-extremely-proud-of-quick-arrests-in-macdill-explosive-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/208222\/","title":{"rendered":"Safety experts ‘extremely proud’ of quick arrests in MacDill explosive case"},"content":{"rendered":"

One person has been taken into custody while another is believed to have fled to China.<\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Community members are praising the military and law enforcement for preventing anyone from being harmed and for quickly identifying those accused of planting a \u201cpotentially very deadly\u201d explosive at MacDill Air Force Base.<\/p>\n

Siblings Alen Zheng and Ann Mary Zheng have been indicted<\/a> on charges related to attempting to damage or destroy the Visitor’s Center at MacDill by allegedly making an improvised explosive device, also known as an IED. Alen Zheng is believed to be on the run in China, while Ann Mary Zheng is being held in the Pinellas County Jail.<\/p>\n

“It makes me sad that there are people that would want to hurt other people, but it also makes me extremely proud that the people of MacDill keep showing up every single day and bringing their A-game to their work,” Suzy Malloy, executive director of the Tampa Bay region chapter of Blue Star Families<\/a>, said.<\/p>\n

Malloy said many in the community have been focused on staying vigilant and looking out for one another. She said investigators tracking down the siblings so quickly shows the commitment of both the military and law enforcement to keeping the community safe. She added that stress levels have already been heightened for service members following the escalation of conflict with Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors said the motive behind the attempted bombing remains unknown and that they are continuing to explore additional leads in the case.<\/p>\n

Global Awareness Professionals<\/a> President Mark Herrera said the next steps in the investigation will be critical to understanding the motive behind the crime.<\/p>\n

Herrera, who has trained hundreds of venues and organizations on how to mitigate different types of threats, said the situation could have been worse, but the layers of protection in place ultimately protected the community.<\/p>\n

“The device didn’t detonate, and law enforcement acted quickly. For the general public, this is not a reason to panic. It’s a reminder, really, of the importance of vigilance and preparedness and that community awareness is key,” Herrera said.<\/p>\n

Herrera said the \u201csee something, say something\u201d mindset remains critical and that community awareness is one of the strongest layers of security. Despite the heightened security at MacDill Air Force Base, Herrera said no system is designed to eliminate every risk.<\/p>\n

“It’s designed to detect, to disrupt, to prevent escalation, and that’s exactly what we saw here,” Herrera said.<\/p>\n

While the motive is still being investigated, Herrera said past cases have involved ideological beliefs, personal grievances or a desire to gain attention. He said key details from forensic analysis, digital evidence and possible connections could help paint a clearer picture.<\/p>\n

Herrera said the incident is not just about the threat itself, but also about preparedness and the importance of the community reporting suspicious behavior.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Malloy echoed praise for the quick response and said the situation has brought people closer together.<\/p>\n

“Even though something was found, I knew that they would eventually find the person that did it, and I also know that it made us even look out more for what could possibly be happening,” Malloy said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One person has been taken into custody while another is believed to have fled to China. TAMPA, Fla.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-208222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}