Posted on 04/30/2010 11:05:42 AM PDT by LibertyRocks
A phony track worker triggered a terror scare inside a lower Manhattan subway tunnel Friday morning - but he turned out to be a despondent college student who wanted to kill himself by ingesting sodium cyanide, police said.
A 20-year-old Pace University student who has been on the school's Dean's List told police he wanted to find a discreet alcove, mix the cyanide pellets with water and ingest it.
"He did not want to be found," said Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, the NYPD's top spokesman.
"He had no ID on him. He was looking for some isolated place in the system."
The pellets, commercially sold and typically used to clean jewelry, can create a noxious gas when heated.
The suspect did have five flares in his backpack -- along with two liters of water and a quart container of cyanide - but police said the flares could not produce the heat needed to cause any damage.
"This was not a terrorist plot," Browne said. "We believe it was part of a plan for an individual to kill himself alone."
NYC Transit employees on a work train spotted him at 5:30 a.m. in the tunnel connecting the Borough Hall station, in Brooklyn, and the Bowling Green station in lower Manhattan.
The suspect was dressed as a track worker - wearing a hard hat, reflective vest and knee-high boots - but he had no work identification on him, so the employees brought him aboard the train, and police were notified.
He admitted to police he was depressed and wanted to end his life - not kill anyone else. He was still being questioned Friday morning.
Thanks. I haven’t had time to do a lot of searching on his name. I’m guessing the ENV 112 is the name of the course he was taking at the time the post was made... However, that’s just a guess. They do have that course at PACE.
I guess I was correct that his “fandom” of the RNC was for irony, or “trolling” purposes...
I do note that the post was made a year ago... Perhaps someone changed his mind on the efficacy of violence???
Just checked out that Mohamed Fetto — he is overseas by all appearances. NOT in New York.
I looked through several pages of Aaron’s friends list, and saw a good cross-section of people of all types. Unlike others I’ve looked at there is no large group of predominantly Muslim named friends on his list. (And, if there WERE, they may have removed themselves as soon as they heard of his plans, or his name was revealed).
Just saying: If you looked up my real name on FB I know there are at least 6 accounts for my name alone, and I don’t know how many for folks with my last name (especially if you looked in Poland).
It is interesting to speculate on this, but I’m not seeing the same “definitely Islamic” signs as, for instance, when I researched the OU Bombing.
Not ruling it out, but I’d bet this guy was more of a liberal environmental nut — then again, most liberals sympathize with the terrorists anyway, so who knows.
THANK YOU for the research though! Please don’t take anything I said above to mean I’m not grateful for your work! :)
What were the flares for? To make sure he didn’t get hit by a train? When he was supposedly there to commit suicide?
Who knows. Maybe he’s just some totally irrational kid, and suicide really was all he had in mind. But I want him publicly identified, so we can decide for ourselves. None of this HIPPA privacy BS, not releasing information because he’s mentally ill.
I think it’s post #44 where I put up an excerpted article from the WSJ. We’ve got the kid’s name now... Still interesting.
From some digging that FReeper WTD has done it appears he may be an environmentalist. Most likely NOT directly associated with Islamic Extremists, but one never knows, really.
I’m still not buying the suicide story... Just don’t know what his real motive is here.
Shoot... Make that post #29 for the WSJ report.
Yeah, I saw the name posted further down. Sounds like just a seriously screwed up kid, which may explain why some of his gear doesn’t make sense. The NY Post article quoted an unnamed dormmate as saying he was nice, but “weird” and “socially awkward”. He may have schizophrenia or some other psychotic disorder that either recently worsened, or meds stopped working. Elaborate plans that don’t make any sense are pretty typical of schizophrenics.
All good points you bring up. There are a few scenarios that would make sense, but unlike the OU Bombing there are no red flags jumping out at me right now... I just hope our LEOs are not leaving any stone unturned.
He wanted to kill himself: True
He didn’t want to be found: True
He wanted to kill many others: Left out
It wasn’t a terrorist attempt: Lie
Thank you Ministry of Truth.
No problem Liberty...stay safe with the storm.
In my opinion, this was a thwarted attack. Would have been very, very bad.
“The page you requested was not found.”
That’s what I get when I try to view this page:
http://www.facebook.com/sitemap.php?type=people&id=3379
And that page is what I find when I search for “Aaron Fetto” +islam via google:
Curiouser and curiouser...
Several years ago, there was a big mystery about bottles of water found in the subway, far in, that had been taken there and left.
We never got to the end of that mystery.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.