The Aftermath, Dalton Law Firm Bombing

It was the first time cameras captured an up close look at the damage left by a bomb that ripped through the law office of McCamy, Phillips, Tuggle and Fordman Friday morning. Windows were blown out and glass littered the parking lot.

Jim Fordham was in court when the bombing occurred.

But just minutes earlier he and more than a dozen other people stood in the conference room that 78-year-old Lloyd Cantrell tried to ram with his car.

"His car was loaded with additional explosive material. They [ATF agents and GBI] said if he had accomplished what he wanted to do and that is ram into the building..that it would have destroyed the post office, the building across and part of the school," Fordham recalled.

Fordham says he's known Lloyd Cantrell for 25 years and calls him somewhat of an odd ball, "but everytime I saw him we were kidding about something."

A day before the bombing, Fordham says Cantrell called the law office looking lawyer Jim Phillips.

Phillips was the most seriously hurt in the blast.

He tried to stop Cantrell from throwing a bomb through the library window after his attempts to ram the building failed.

But Fordham does not think Cantrell was specifically targeting Phillips.

"I think he was just mad at the judicial system. He was mad because he lost his case in which we represented the other party," Fordham told News 12.

In fact, Phillips' son Marc says Cantrell helped build their family home and his dad considered Cantrell a friend.

"He just thought he could talk some sense into this fellow and I'm sure he was worried about his co-workers..and took it on himself to confront this fellow," Marc said.

And for that Marc calls his dad a hero.

Fordham returned from court just in time to see Phillips being loaded into an ambulance. "I just lost it when I saw him because his clothes were burned off of him..he's legs were black from burns, his chest was black. His face was black."

Phillips suffered second degree burns on a third of his body. He remains in an Augusta burn center.

Police searched Cantrell's Beaverdale Road home but did not find any other explosive device or any explanation for the bombing.

Tomorrow a community meeting will be held so that Dalton citizens can talk with police and a victim response team about the incident.

It will be at 2:00 at Dalton High School.