OC Family Speaks Out After FBI Probe Into 17-Year-Old's Home Lab: Report

IRVINE, CA — The family of a 17-year-old boy who is the subject of a federal hazardous materials investigation at an Irvine home spoke out this week in defense of their son, The Orange County Register reported.

"People are afraid of what they don't understand," the family's lawyer, Charles M. Ray, told the newspaper Saturday. "This is someone who is going to help cure cancer one day. He is not a terrorist."

Ray described the equipment at the home-based laboratory as materials that would be "found in a sixth-grade lab," such as Bunsen burners and other materials, the newspaper said.

The news comes after a homemade science lab in a rented luxury home in Irvine triggered a heavy response from FBI hazmat teams and other local agencies Feb. 23.

Irvine Police issued a statement last Thursday saying the situation began at a home in Altair, a guard-gated community of multimillion-dollar homes, "after a juvenile at the residence mixed unknown chemicals" on Feb. 23.

"The specific substances involved, along with the surrounding circumstances, are being carefully and methodically evaluated by subject matter experts from multiple disciplines," police said.

No nearby residents were evacuated as a result of the investigation and no arrests were immediately made, authorities said.