Police: Larry Gene Thurman, 81, Set Bomb in Senior Complex in Decatur, Alabama

(Sept. 7) -- Authorities in Alabama are trying to determine why an 81-year-old man made a bomb that detonated in his apartment at an 8-story-tall senior center, killing him.

Residents of the Summer Manor Apartments in northeast Decatur were evacuated, but no injuries were reported.

"It is kind of hard to say what his motives [were]," Decatur police Lt. Jonathan Green told AOL News today. He said the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has joined state and local agencies in the investigation.

The bomb exploded at about 9:30 p.m. Monday, rocking the building, which is owned by the Decatur Housing Authority. When police and fire personnel arrived, they determined the blast came from a third-floor apartment.

"The damage from the explosion itself was pretty much contained ... but the building itself received damage when the sprinkler system activated and flooded the building," Green said.

After residents were evacuated, investigators discovered the body of Larry Gene Thurman inside the apartment where the explosion occurred. Investigators determined that Thurman was building several incendiary devices, which were designed to cause significant damage.

"Right now, it appears he was constructing these devices in his apartment [and] intentionally set one of them off," Green said. "Maybe in hopes of a chain reaction with the other ones."

Green said authorities do not believe suicide would have been Thurman's sole motivation. "I believe there would have been other ways for him to go about that if it was his sole intention," Green said.

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The Huntsville Police Department Bomb Squad cleared the apartment of other questionable devices. Thurman's body has been sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for an autopsy to help determine an exact cause of death.

Green said investigators do not think the explosion has any connection to Amy Bishop, the University of Alabama biology professor who allegedly killed three colleagues and wounded three others in a February shooting rampage.

In 1993, police questioned Bishop after a pipe bomb was mailed to one of her colleagues. The bomb did not explode. Bishop denied any involvement, and no one was charged.