Suspect in FiDi Fake Bomb Episode Held on Charges Here and in West Va.

Left: Image from a surveillance video of a man wheeling a rice cooker in the Fulton Street subway station that led to the arrest of Larry Griffin in the Bronx. Right: One of two rice cookers found in the station: Photos: NYPD

The homeless man accused of placing false bombs in the Fulton Street subway station is being held on $200,000 bail while also facing charges in his native West Virginia, where he has been wanted since March.

Larry Kenton Griffin II, 26, allegedly placed two rice cookers on separate platforms of the Fulton Street station last Friday morning, disrupting rush hour subway service and traffic in the Financial District. Police say he put a third cooker at the corner of 16th Street and 7th Avenue. All were deemed harmless. Griffin is charged with three felony counts of placing a false bomb. 

In addition, a judge ordered Griffin held without bail in connection to an active warrant for his arrest in Logan County, WV, where he is accused of “the use of obscene matter with intent to seduce a minor.” He had been wanted for “failure to report and for missing drug screens as part of his pre-trial bond supervision,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Griffin has also been arrested for possession of a controlled substance involving weapons, the statement said.

On video surveillance, Griffin is seen taking a rice cooker out of a shopping cart, placing it next to an elevator and kicking it a few inches towards the elevator, according to the criminal complaint. That cooker, plus the second one found at the station and the one in Chelsea were all the same model, the complaint said.

Seen in a video following his arrest in the Bronx Saturday night, Griffin appears to be unconscious as medics wheel him from the building where he was found. He was taken to Lincoln Hospital where he recovered from what the Daily News reported was an apparent drug overdose.

The News quoted Griffin’s older brother, Jason, as saying that Larry told him that he had tried to check into a psychiatric ward two days before the episode but was turned away. “He really needs help,” Jason Griffin is quoted as saying. “Prison would create a beast. He doesn’t belong there.”