Only the former Boy Scouts would “Be Prepared”.
What about this person?:
June 29th, 2006
Lindsay Pieper, Staff Writer Email Print
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Police charged a 21-year-old Virginia Tech student with planting a homemade bomb in an apartment and then falsely telling police that a second individual was involved in the construction of explosives.
Janaka Nuwan Kumara Siriwardena, a sophomore computer science major from Sterling, VA., is being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail for allegedly planting a bomb and telling police a different person was responsible for the explosive.
In a news release, Captain Kim S. Crannis of the Blacksburg Police Department reported that on Thursday, June 22, authorities charged Siriwardena with burglary, manufacturing an explosive device, cocaine possession and making a false report to a law enforcement officer.
Authorities stated that on June 21, the Blacksburg police received information from an informant about the manufacturing of explosives in an OakBridge Homes apartment building.
According to the search warrant for the residence, the informant was in apartment three on 825 Orchard Street where he claimed to observe a subject pour powder into a cylindrical pipe. The informant described the object as “like a pipe bomb.”
The informant told the police that the subject then poured what appeared to be BBs into the pipe and stated “this is gonna be fun.” According to the informant, other pipe-like items that could be used to make explosives were also in the apartment.
After obtaining a search warrant, members of the Blacksburg Police, the Virginia State Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided the apartment at 4:30 a.m. Thursday and discovered an explosive device containing gunpowder and ball bearings beneath the window.
The Virginia State Police Bomb Squad rendered the explosive safe, and no one was injured.
Of the three roommates living in the apartment, Muhammad Mansoor, an electrical engineering major, was subletting and had only lived in the building for one month. He did not know the suspect personally.
The owner of the housing complex, OakBridge Townhomes, refused comment.
Interviews with the three roommates and an investigation determined that the explosive device and a powder substance believed to be cocaine were planted in the apartment.
“I would not have expected this kind of thing from that kind of a person,” said Siriwardena’s friend Aaron Hope, a senior psychology and philosophy double major. “I find it hard to believe.”