The homeless man wanted a fresh start, so he walked into the New Life Church Nov. 30 and placed his backpack with all his worldly possessions inside on the stage.

About six hours later, after the Port of Seattle bomb squad detonated the backpack, he was free to go with his possessions, including a Civil War-era knife.

The church provided him with hot meals and put him up in a motel for two nights.

The 34-year-old man walked in to the church on the Renton Maple Valley Highway at about 1:20 p.m., and placed his backpack on the stage. He told a security officer it was for the pastor.

The church was evacuated.

The man left but then returned. He was talking with Pastor Ricardo Quintana and security guards when Renton Police officers arrived.

“Everything I own,” he answered, when asked what was inside the backpack. He was offering his belongings to God, so he could start over, get a fresh start.

Officers asked whether he had anything inside the backpack that could harm anyone. There was the Civil War knife and the rest of his belongings.

He didn’t feel suicidal, but he needed some help. He was talking and acting strangely, according to the Renton Police Department case report.

“There was enough lack of clarity of why he was doing it that we felt protocol needed to go to the next level,” said Quintana in an interview. He had several conversations with the man during the day.

The Port of Seattle bomb squad was called in. Although he was free to leave, the man stayed.

A technician spent about 40 minutes searching the bag with x-ray, which revealed a couple “suspicious” items. The decision was made to implode the backpack using water, which caused minimal damage, according to Quintana.

The blast slightly damaged the stage; there was still something suspicious in the bag. The man was detained. Using a robot, the technician determined at about 5:15 p.m. that there were no explosive devices in the backpack.

Now the man could leave.