New police body camera video shows the moment a conspiracy theorist vandalized his Virginia home.
James Yoo, 56, intentionally used gasoline to set his house on fire, killing him in the process and causing an explosion that was felt by people miles away.
Arlington County officials showed body camera video showing the sequence of events that led to the Yoo home explosion with several police officers in dangerously close proximity.
One part of the video shows a police car with its windshield shattered by debris from the explosion, while another shows an officer being swept back by the explosion and running away.
Investigators said Yoo, who believed his neighbors were spies who wanted to assassinate him, acted alone and that this explosion was not terrorist-related.
Yoo’s house is seen from the point of view of a police car parked in his front yard moments before it explodes in a fireball.
Pictured: The split second in which the entire house explodes, which authorities say was caused by Yoo intentionally.
Seconds later, the house collapses. Investigators said Yoo acted alone and was not working with terrorist groups.
Officers were sent to Yoo’s home on Dec. 4 when an officer in the area heard what sounded like gunshots.
When he went to investigate and was greeted by several nervous residents in Fields Park, near Yoo’s home.
As more distressed calls came in from neighbors reporting gunshots or fireworks, officers determined that flares were being shot from the back window of the duplex on North Burlington Street.
Officers arrived at the duplex where one of the units was owned by Yoo. The occupants on the other side of the duplex were evacuated when police attempted to engage in dialogue with Yoo, who fired more than 30 flares from his home that night.
Investigators said they were unable to make contact with Yoo, and over the course of the four-hour confrontation, neighbors told police he was an inmate who had recently covered their windows with trash bags. WUSA9 reported.
His social media also included strange ramblings accusing his neighbors of carrying out surveillance operations at his home and passing information to US authorities.
The view of the explosion from the back of the duplex where Yoo had barricaded himself inside.
A police officer is seen on body camera being knocked to the ground by the sudden explosion. After shouting some obscenities. The officer turns on his heel and runs away.
“(Names redacted) and his two sons are spies and act as buffers by collecting my information and then delivering it to those responsible,” Yoo wrote in the deranged social media entry.
He claimed they were “working with the witch and the alien” planning a “surprise attack” on him on December 7, the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The posts refer to his ex-wife as a “witch” and anti-US slogans including “#F—AMERICA.”
He ranted: “This is how white people operate and they have the luxury of outnumbering all other ‘races’ by almost 7 to 1 in ‘Merica.'”
Once authorities learned of some of the several anti-government outposts, they were able to obtain a search warrant to search his home and recover any weapons that may have been inside.
However, Yoo refused to back down from his barricaded position inside the home, and authorities’ attempts to enter by firing pepper spray and throwing tear gas were unsuccessful, WUSA9 reported.
A police officer in a nearby driveway witnesses the explosion at Yoo’s house that engulfs a police car parked on the lawn.
Before the house explodes, Yoo is seen shooting flares out the back window, where they land on a nearby park and elementary school.
James Yoo, the Arlington man suspected of setting off an explosion at his Virginia home, was a paranoid conspiracy theorist who believed the U.S. government wanted to kill him with the help of his neighbors.
The house suddenly exploded when officers tried to enter through a window around 8:25 p.m.
The resulting inferno killed no one other than Yoo, whose remains were found the next day, but nearby residents were certainly traumatized.
Emily Saxon, a 30-year-old nurse, said the explosion sounded like an “earthquake” and the shock waves felt like a car had driven through her living room.
Sam Kin, a 25-year-old consultant who lived next door to Yoo, filmed police trying to convince the 56-year-old man to leave the house.
He said the explosion was “traumatizing” after being hit by the blast wave.
“I’m going to see my therapist right now,” Kim told DailyMail.com.
Police were not seriously injured and 60 firefighters responded to fight the flames.
Searching through the rubble on Dec. 5, police found gas cans, three handguns, two flare guns, magazines, ammunition and more flares, WUSA9 reported.
Police found gas cans, three handguns, two flare guns, magazines, ammunition and more flares.
Pictured: The aftermath of the explosion that destroyed Yoo’s house.
A relative of Yoo told WUSA9 that he had a history of mental illness but refused any treatment for his alleged symptoms, which included psychosis, catatonic behavior and paranoia.
Among his other conspiracy beliefs was the idea that there was a link between the 9/11 attacks and special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the 2016 election.
That idea of his came about through his submissions in a lawsuit Yoo filed against family members, including his ex-wife Stephanie, and Rochester General Hospital for allegedly detaining him against his will.
The lawsuit was dismissed as “frivolous.”
‘Plaintiff believes he is the victim of a conspiracy against him by his sister, his ex-wife and others, including RGH. “Plaintiff believes, for example, that his sister, his ex-wife, and RGH conspired to prevent him from obtaining an attorney,” a court document reads.
His wife divorced him on March 30, 2017, citing “the irreparable breakdown of their relationship.”
Yoo was told to pay her a sum of $80,000 and to buy her share of her now-destroyed former marital home for the sum of $150,000.
