Jefferson City man charged after alleged explosive found

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Prosecutors have charged a Jefferson City man with possession of an illegal weapon after he was allegedly found with what he called a modified firework.

A Cole County deputy pulled over a vehicle in which Evan Hale was a passenger for a stop sign violation just after midnight Monday at South Country Club Drive and Fairline Road, according to a probable cause statement. The deputy searched the car and found a "cylindrical object wrapped in black tape with a fuse protruding from it," the statement said.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol Bomb Squad was called in and determined the cylinder was an improvised explosive, according to the statement.

Hale allegedly told authorities under questioning that the object was a modified "mortar shell" firework.

The statement did not say what Hale allegedly planned to do with the object.

Hale was jailed in Cole County without bond, according to online court records.