One Year since Dr. Pierce Bomb Attack

Updated: Thursday, 04 Feb 2010, 5:38 PM CST
Published : Thursday, 04 Feb 2010, 5:38 PM CST
http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/dpp/news/local/020410-one-year-since-dr.-pierce-bomb-attack

A steady drizzle beat down on those who entered the building that houses the Arkansas State Medical Board in Little Rock on Thursday morning. Inside, the panel of fourteen doctors convened to begin a scheduled two days of hearings. But, your eyes couldn't help but be drawn, for a brief moment, when the past walked in eerie lockstep with the present as Board Chairman, West Memphis Doctor, Trent Pierce, led the proceedings exactly one year to the day after a car bomb nearly took his life. On that February 4th 2009, it wasn't decorum, but chaos that ruled the day.

At the time, West Memphis Police Chief Bob Paudert
opined, "He had no enemies that we know of. That his family knows of. He was well liked in the community by everyone."

Pierce's friend Scott Ferguson surmised, "I keep thinking is there a decision that he's been involved with that someone was unhappy with."

It would take months for a massive investigation conducted by Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agents to find that alleged "unhappy person."

Last week the feds filed charges against Russellville physician Dr. Randeep Mann, alleging he was responsible for placing a grenade, car tire and rim concocted home-made bomb that exploded when Pierce tried to remove it from the front of his car parked in his driveway. The blast, which rocked the neighborhood, left Pierce with extensive injuries to his face, neck, arms, legs and the loss of his left eye. The diagnosis for any kind of rapid recovery then looked bleak.

But, a confident Pierce, on Thursday, was asking questions such as "You took step two twice. And step 3. It took you four times to take step three. Could you tell us about that?"

Watching an alert and perceptive Pierce asking tough, but fair questions of a man seeking a medical license from the board, it became clear just how miraculous a recovery he was able to accomplish. While neither Pierce nor any of his Medical Board colleagues would comment on camera about the anniversary of the car bombing or the arrest of Mann, the respect shown to him was obvious.

Yes, the one alleged "enemy" that Trent Pierce had is behind bars, and the terror and the uncertainty of that horrific day is seemingly behind him.

He is once again a man with no enemies on a day when the past and the present briefly connected and kept on going.

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