Arrest made in Tbilisi grenade-toss
By UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
United Press International
July 21 2005
TBILISI, Georgia — Police in the republic of Georgia have charged a
man in Tbilisi with throwing a live grenade into a crowd U.S.
President George Bush was addressing in May.
Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said police went to an
apartment Wednesday acting on a tip, and were met with gunfire. One
policeman was killed before the suspect, Vladimer Arutiniani, 27, was
arrested. He was also wounded in the gun battle, Radio Free Europe
said.
There was little information given about the man, although a
government official told CNN he was Armenian, and the grenade found
in Freedom Square May 10 was also Armenian.
The grenade was tossed within 100 feet of the podium where Bush,
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and other officials were
protected by bulletproof glass.
A statement on the U.S. Embassy Web site called the grenade a
“live device that simply failed to function.”