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ATF, Army help remove materials from campus apartment

Mississippi State University police on Wednesday charged a 20-year-old student with possession of explosives after officers discovered explosive materials in the student's on-campus apartment.

Christopher F. Horromon, 20, of 63 Arbour Acres, MSU, was being held in the Oktibbeha County Jail Wednesday night on a charge of possession of explosives. Bond for Horromon had not been set as of Wednesday night.

Horromon and another man, who was not arrested and later released, were questioned most of the afternoon Wednesday, said MSU Police Department officials. The man was found to be visiting Horromon from out of town, officials said.

MSU officers and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents searched the apartment -- No. 63 in Building 6 at the on-campus Arbour Acres complex -- after custodial workers from the university's Department of Housing and Residence Life called police shortly after 11 a.m. Wednesday.

The two custodians had gone to the apartment to clean it and, upon entering, noticed a strong smell of gasoline in the apartment and found the two men lying in the second-floor hallway of the apartment, said Ann Bailey, MSU director of housing and residence life.

Fearing the two were unconscious, the custodians contacted MSU police officers and Housing Department officials, who, in turn contacted the Starkville Fire Department and paramedics.

The two young men were later found to be asleep, and the gasoline smell had come from the carpet, which was saturated with the fuel from a leaking motorcycle and moped in the apartment, officials said.

The two were sleeping the hallway because the bedrooms in the apartment were packed full of their belongings, said MSU Police Chief Tom Johnson.

While in the apartment, officers and emergency workers discovered containers of flammable fuel and three suspicious devices later determined to contain explosive chemicals, Johnson said.

"We knew what we were looking at, so we evacuated the apartment and all the other apartments in the building and got control of the scene," Johnson said. "We called ATF and an Army team from Camp Shelby to handle the materials."

The Explosive Ordnance Disposal Detachment from Camp Shelby removed the explosive material from the apartment, and it was being taken by ATF agents to be tested, Johnson said.

Neither Johnson, the ATF agents nor the Army explosive technicians would comment on the type of materials found in the apartment, though Johnson did say they were chemicals. They also would not comment on the type of devices or objects in which the materials were encased.

After the explosive materials were removed, MSU police investigators conducted a thorough search of the apartment to ensure that all dangerous materials had been removed, Johnson said.

Officers continued working into the evening hours Wednesday.

Few students remain on the MSU campus following the close of the spring semester last week, but Robinson said the students being house at Arbour Acres were staying there between academic terms. The summer term is scheduled to begin in two weeks.

The five or six students evacuated from Building 6 were being housed free of charge in Herbert Hall until the apartment in question was cleaned and the building cleared for safe reentry, Robinson said.

Johnson would not comment on whether additional charges may be filed in the incident, but did say the investigation is continuing.

Jay Perry and Charlie Winfield, attorneys representing Horromon and the other man in the apartment, were present at the apartment complex during the search late Wednesday afternoon, but would not comment on what had been found or the arrest.

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