Bomb Blast at University of Oklahoma (Breaking on Fox) - suicide bomber at OU

Fox News/NewsOK.com ^ | oct. 1, 2005

[blogblogginaway]

From Staff Reports
NORMAN -- An explosion near the University of Oklahoma's Gaylord Family-Memorial Stadium killed one person Saturday, OU officials said.

The explosion happened at the courtyard near the George Lynn Cross Hall, Botany-Microbiology Building on OU's campus, which is west of the stadium, according to Sgt. Gary Robinson of the University police department.

The explosion happened during the second quarter of Oklahoma's game against Kansas State.

After the explosion, police set up a perimeter of several blocks and made fans exit the stadium to the east.

[ariamne]

Good point. How about all suicide bombers, that is, those who know they are about to and are willing to die for aforementioned 72 virgins, can be classified as "suicides".

[rwfromkansas]

Oh guess what, like I suspected, he isn't Muslim.

Just some random nut who killed himself.

[TADSLOS]

See what a publik edjucashun will git ya?! ;~)

[af_vet_rr]

Considering that PhiKapMom heard the OK Home Security Director say this a "large investigation" with "puzzle pieces", I won't put much faith in CNN at this point.

Look at it another way - if the guy killed himself with a knife or a firearm, or sat in a running car in a garage or hanged himself, you would have never heard of it. The only reason the OK Homeland Security Director person cares is because a bomb was involved.

That fact is, a lot of suicides are done publicly to gain attention.

I don't know if your familiar with "Hands on a Hard Body" - a local contest here in Texas in a small town (although I've heard it's spread). It gets a lot of publicity around Texas - you basically win a truck if you can keep touching a pickup longer than anybody else.

The one that just occured recently - one of the contestants stopped touching the truck, walked over to a store, stole a shotgun and some shells and blew his head off in front of some cops and onlookers.

I doubt it got much press outside of Texas.

Had he done it with a simple little pipebomb, there would probably be a 1000 reply thread here on FR :-/

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

"But we should all never be too quick to accept everything we hear from the media, we have to stay vigilant and on top of these things!"

Right, and great work!

[darbymcgill]

Maybe off topic--but remember the guy from Norman who tried to get on a plane carrying what they described as a pipe bomb in his backpack?

My son is a frat bro of the guy. He is supposedly an amateur pyrotechnician and had a series case of HUA. I think he recently coped a plea to some minor infraction. He had supposedly worked up some fireworks for a local private event.

[dmw]

Thanks, I appreciate that! :-)

[Ray66]

Ya, you'd have to put in order what I found.

Next odd one, guess he bounced around some, or just blabbing:

Meeting Minutes for 10-13-02 (Meeting #8)

"Pl. Hinrichs
-I find that TAMU have the same pranks as MIT."

http://web.archive.org/web/20041017120025/www.outriangle.org/minutes/02f-08.temp.html

[GummyIII]

HUA? Pardon my ignorance...

[JustaCowgirl]

I think there could be echoes, there are a lot of buildings around there for it to bounce off of. However, I wouldn't think it would be enough to make someone think it lasted 5-10 seconds. I also can't vouch for the reliability of that poster, just passing it on.

PhiKapMom, I'd be interested to hear if this is very different from what you experienced.

One thing there does seem to be general agreement on is that this was a very loud explosion with some effect large enough to produce a physical tremor or shake in at least parts of the stadium. Seems to be that this kid had some significant explosives at his disposal.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

The word, 'bomb' is key. Combine 'suicide' with 'bomb', and it sounds kind of Middle East-- doesn't sound like the USA. Of course we are suspicious. Any red blooded American would be. I just wonder what color of blood flows in these media outlets? Probably the color the Feds tell them to have.

[GummyIII]

LOL...whoops...just figured it out.

[rwfromkansas]

Look at the fraternity minutes.

The guy had some issues.

The most likely scenario is that he killed himself. Why with a bomb I don't know. Why the possible second device I don't know. Perhaps he wanted to take others with him.

It makes no sense that he just happened to stumble upon a bomb somebody else left there.

[GummyIII]

Probably carrying something he didn't expect to blow. Sounds like he was into pyrotechnics.

[pa mom]

Someone on the other thread posited the theory that they guy was hoping to blow up the KU team bus. Or set off an explosion nearby as a prank.

As likely as anything else.

[Spunky]

"Ive read that report. You're reading it one way, I'm reading it another. I'm reasonably certain I'm right about what it means, but you could be, too....

I don't know but the way I am reading this is that the story/statement was changed from where he said there was a secondary bomb, to one of where he feels he needs to make a correction saying the bomb squad caused the second explosion to ensure there was not a second bomb. Leaves me wondering which of his two statements is the correct one.

"Boren initially said a police bomb squad detonated explosives found at the site of the blast. But in a separate statement issued early Sunday, Boren said it was further investigation determined that the second detonation, which could also be heard in the stadium area, was done by the bomb squad to ensure there was not a second device. The area near the stadium was searched by bomb dogs."

[af_vet_rr]

Of course we are suspicious. Any red blooded American would be. I just wonder what color of blood flows in these media outlets? Probably the color the Feds tell them to have.

Considering the federal government is not too concerned about terrorism in this county, I wouldn't worry.

[PhatHead]

I was at the game last night, and have read and heard very little about this story (just got back home to Texas a little while ago.) I was seated in the south endzone, on the east end of that section, which was probably the best section to hear the blast. For other vets reading, you know the difference between a gunshot and an explosion, and this was a big bang - maybe similar to a 4.2 mortar shell - at least that's what it reminded me of. No question that people in my section were very distgracted from the game for a bit. We could see police on the ground headed off that way, and a few people thought they could see the smoke. I can tell you that from the location of the blast, and the layout of the stadium, nobody else could really see anything, and my son, who is in the OU band, did not think too much of the sound (OU band sits near the sideline on the west side of the stadium.)

I did not hear any second explosion, as somebody reported earlier.

My younger son was not feeling well, so we left shortly after halftime. All the gates but one were locked, although no announcement of any kind had been made in the stadium. We spend a lot of time walking around trying to get back to our car, as OUPD, Norman PD, Ok. State Police and FBI were pointing people in circles - tough to communicate in the confusion. By this time the entire stadium parking garage was taped off by police tape, and we saw one bomb sniffing dog outside of the garage. Several streets were also closed, along with a large section in the middle of the campus.

This morning, much of the campus was still taped off, at least until mid-day, and FBI was still in the area (they have and office in OKC.)

I know this does not give you any new information, but it's a little perspective from somebody who was there...

[JustaCowgirl]

Thanks for the report, PhatHead. Sounds like the person who heard '5-10 seconds worth' might have been hearing echoes or is just plain wrong.

[teenyelliott]

You've been running roughshod over anyone and everyone

Nope. Just the one guy.