Latest Update: His name is Sujith Kumar Venkatramolla
He is listed on an Indo-American student support organization website- Valmiki Edu.
Rolla Daily News has the story.
UPDATE: KMOV reports that the campus has named the student:
Susi Kumar Ventramolla, 22 according to Interim Police Chief Mark Kearse is an international student, and was despondent over his grades.
Susi Kumar Ventramolla
The “international student” was found with bomb-making materials! –KCTV
The graduate student was “depressed”.
His depression led him to write out a list of bomb targets.
A hazardous materials personnel staging area located near the Butler-Carlton Civil Engineering Building at the University of Missouri – Rolla, is shown Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2007, in Rolla, Mo. A University of Missouri-Rolla graduate student claiming to possess anthrax and a bomb threw this south-central Missouri community into a panic Tuesday, but police suspect it was nothing more than an empty threat by a depressed student and not an incident of terrorism. (AP Photo/Dan Gill)
News Channel 5 KSDK has video (HERE) of the episode this morning.
Evidently, the student called police and disquised his voice like that of a woman(?)
– Police say he held a knife, held up a bag and said, “This is a bomb.” Police used a stun gun to subdue the student, who also claimed that he had anthrax. (KSDK)
– Student had a list of targets.
The Columbia Tribune reported today that an UM Rolla “international student” was arrested after he threatened to blow up buildings and other terrorist-type actions:
ROLLA (AP) – Nearly two dozen people were quarantined today after a white, powdery substance was found on a student who claimed to have a bomb and threatened “terrorist-type” actions at the University of Missouri-Rolla, officials said.
The man, described as a graduate student depressed about his grades, also claimed to have anthrax, police said. School officials said “possible bomb materials” were found when he was taken into custody.
Twenty-three people were being quarantined until authorities could determine whether they needed to be decontaminated. A Missouri National Guard team from Fort Leonard Wood was gathering samples to determine if the substance was hazardous, said Lt. Col. David Boyle of the 7th Civil Support Team.
“If we had to make an assessment right now, our assessment is that this is going to be a bogus or phony situation,” said Acting Police Chief Mark Kearse.
The 5,850-student technological research and engineering campus in south-central Missouri was shut down during the incident, and classes were canceled for the day while officers investigated.
Kearse said that when police arrived around 2:30 a.m. at the university’s civil engineering building the student was holding a knife and that he held up a bag and said: “This is a bomb.”
Officials indicated the substance probably was not anthrax, noting that no one who was exposed to it has had any symptoms.
“If it was anthrax, they would have been displaying some symptoms,” said Ray Massey, ambulance director at Phelps County Regional Medical Center.
Police used a stun gun to subdue the student and found a note in which he threatened to destroy the building, Kearse said.
The man’s identity and nationality were not released, although school spokesman Lance Feyh said he was an international student. The man was decontaminated and taken to a hospital before being taken to a holding facility at the Rolla Police Department, Kearse said.
Mayor William Jenks and Kearse said the student was distraught over his grades, which might have led to the incident.
Hat Tip Kitty C.
A hazardous materials personnel staging area, yellow tents at right, located near the Butler-Carlton Civil Engineering Building at the University of Missouri – Rolla,, curved building at center, is shown Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2007, in Rolla, Mo. (AP)
UM Rolla is a prominent engineering school.
KMOV has a roundup.
