West Virginia man identified as suspect in rice cooker scare in NYC

Larry Kenton Griffin II (NYPD)
Larry Kenton Griffin II (NYPD)(WDBJ)
Published: Aug. 16, 2019 at 10:33 PM EDT
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The Logan County Sheriff's Department in West Virginia confirms Friday that a man from their county is a person of interest in an investigation concerning rice cookers being placed at the Fulton Street subway station in New York, located in lower Manhattan.

The sheriff's department also confirms that Larry Kenton Griffin II of Bruno has a criminal past in Logan County. They say he has been arrested by deputies at least three times within the past eight years. The charges range from possession of a controlled substance involving weapons to use of obscene material to seduce a minor.

According to the sheriff's department, Griffin was indicted by the Logan County Sheriff’s Department in 2017 for the charges of use of obscene matter with intent to seduce a minor and distribution and display to minor of obscene matter.

The sheriff's department said it was contacted early Friday afternoon by the FBI Joint Task Force in New York regarding Griffin. After speaking with an FBI Task Force agent, the Logan County Sheriff’s Department assisted them by speaking with Griffin's family to try and figure out where he could be. No location was determined at this time.

The Logan County Sheriff's Department also says there's an active warrant for Griffin's arrest that was issued by Judge Eric O’Briant and signed on March 18 of this year. The warrant was issued due to Griffin’s failure to report, as well as for missing drug screens as part of his pre-trial bond supervision.

In the New York scare, three abandoned devices that looked like pressure cookers caused an evacuation of a major subway station and closed off an intersection in another part of town Friday morning before police determined the objects were not explosives.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Logan County Sheriff’s Department at 304-792-8590 or 911.