Posted on 10/08/2005 12:16:38 AM PDT by LibertyRocks
NORMAN - The FBI has finished a review of University of Oklahoma stadium surveillance tapes and did not spot student Joel “Joe” Henry Hinrichs III trying to get inside, The Oklahoman has confirmed.
The OU junior died Oct. 1 when a bomb exploded about 100 yards from the football stadium.
Friday, a bus driver who was the last man to see Hinrichs alive released a statement saying Hinrichs appeared to be asleep on a bench when the driver walked by him just moments before the explosion.
After looking for another bus driver to visit, the driver took a few more steps and was “hit from behind with a huge concussion,” he said in the statement released to KWTV NEWS 9’s Tamara Pratt.
“It didn’t knock me down, but it did push me forward,” said the driver, who asked to remain anonymous. “At the time of the explosion, my ears were ringing and I was somewhat dazed at what had happened, but I felt the young man was aware of my presence.”
Reflecting back on the event two days later, the driver said he recalled he had been whistling the song “Great is the Lord” when he walked up on Hinrichs from behind.
He believes that was the last thing Hinrichs heard, and that for whatever reason, Hinrichs decided not to harm him.
“At that moment, I realized how truly God had directed my path,” he said.
After a week of investigation, the FBI and OU continue to treat the death as a suicide by a troubled loner, rather than a failed terrorist plot.
OU President David Boren announced Tuesday the FBI was reviewing tapes from cameras in and around the stadium. Sources told The Oklahoman on Friday the review is done and Hinrichs is not seen trying to enter.
The student’s bomb went off about 7:30 p.m., in the second quarter of OU’s football game against Kansas State University before more than 80,000 fans. The blast sounded like loud thunder and could be heard clearly inside Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.
Hinrichs, 21, an engineering major from Colorado, was not a football fan. An OU spokeswoman said Thursday that OU records do not reflect the sale of a ticket to that game to Hinrichs.
When the bomb exploded, Hinrichs was sitting on a bench outside George Lynn Cross Hall, OU’s botany-microbiology building, officials said.
Boren said OU has surveillance cameras across campus but “we didn’t have a camera positioned on the particular bench where this tragic incident occurred.”
An OU senior, Adam Smith, has said a stadium security guard told him the night of the blast that a young man had sprinted away from Gate 6 after refusing to let a backpack be searched.
OU spokeswoman Catherine Bishop said, “All I know is I have not heard that rumor validated anywhere.”
The student’s father, Joel Hinrichs Jr., said the FBI has told him the bomb was made of concentrated hydrogen peroxide. Experts said explosives made with this common household disinfectant are highly unstable.
The younger Hinrichs lived near a Islamic mosque, had a roommate from Pakistan, had other explosives in his apartment and had tried to buy ammonium nitrate two days before the attack. Those circumstances as well as some news reports have fueled public concern that the bomb was part of a larger plot.
Boren addressed those concerns twice last week - the latest on Thursday.
“I have been assured that law enforcement officials, including federal officials, have found no evidence of a conspiracy involving others which creates an ongoing threat to our OU community,” Boren told students and faculty in a statement. “They have kept me informed of the steps being taken in their investigation.”
Contributing: Staff writer Ken Raymond
"I found out that an Israeli professor (chemistry) developed a pen shaped hand held detector for the stuff, almost 4 years ago!"
And it probably costs about fifty cents and could be readily available to security staff everywhere.
Forgot the link to the article about the TATP detector
http://www.worldpress.org/article_model.cfm?article_id=2153&dont=yes
Thanks. I will add that to the list.
It's not yet proven whether or not this was a terrorist attack motivated by Muslim extremism, but one thing is clear: that is what a lot of people around here want it to be.
No, that's what it looks like to people around here who have the initiative and the intelligence to put the pieces together and assemble the big picture. If you want to stick your head in the sand, fine, go ahead. Don't bother us and we won't bother you.
There's nothing like a terroist bombing to give a university a bad reputation. He's the head PR guy and he's gotta keep the paying customers coming to the university and the football games.
What was it Tom Ridge said to look for on these folks? The smell of chemicals, dangling wires, and an atlas.
I don't WANT it to be anything... I would much rather this was a clear-cut case of one depressed individual who decided to end it that night.
Here's what I do want...
My children to grow up to live in a peaceful country not at war with ANYONE.
I want our soldiers to be able to come home and be with their families and not at risk fighting against crazy radicals who'd like to kill every person who is not "just like them".
I WANT everyone in the world to understand what it's like to live in FREEDOM - free from fear, free from want, free to worship as they please, etc...
Ignoring these things is what has brought us to this point in the first place. It is up to our generation RIGHT NOW to stop this...
And I hope our peace-loving brothers and sisters in the Muslim faith are willing to help us before we turn into a country reminiscent of Hitler's Germany against the Jews. They don't deserve it, and neither do WE!
You can be damned sure I'll be paying a lot more attention to the hobbies of my fellow rocket scientists!
Ping to "review of security tapes". Thanks, LibertyRocks.
I would add another scenario. He was supposed to be inside by a certain time, but when he couldn't make it, the bomb was detonated at that time anyway. His handlers might not have had him in the light of sight.
Thanks LibertyRocks, excellent summary investigation update post!
Boren also said they are putting in surveillance cameras this week -- did we have them at every gate or only the main gates? I cannot answer that question.
Security guards have been told not to talk not to mention they are rent-a-cops for a security firm. Not sure which one. Wonder if they have on tape that the security guard at Gate 7 who was not really checking bags -- just glancing in and would move you along.
Before Saturday's game the UO stadium was checked by bomb sniffing dogs. I don't know if this is SOP or if the University was warned about possible problems.
Problem is, trained bomb sniffing dogs cannot detect TATP.
Only idiots could continue saying this is not moose-limb centered terror attack. Poorly executed maybe, but a terrorist attempt nonetheless.
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Yep, the report that it was a radio controlled bomb raises the issue of whether or no the kid backed out at the last minute or as the London bombers possibly thought he was a courrier.
What for? A lone, depressed student committed suicide, right? Is Boren expecting more depressed students to commit suicide in the near future, near the stadium?
Does he even realize that his actions contradict the spin he's been putting out? That by putting in cameras, he's confirming that this was NOT a simple suicide?
Exactly! This is getting more bizarre with everything coming out of his office -- makes no sense either that we can have surveillance cameras at the stadium but not in the parking garages.
Why are they needed but then my daughter who was at the Cotton Bowl to check on security interviewed two Dallas cops who told her that they can not talk to reporters before the game but call one of them after the game.
Nothing to see here -- no security tightening (security tightened at local high school football games last night too -- all our imagination! Would sure hate to be as dumb as some people in the OU Administration think we are!
It is also irrelevant. Do they mean to say that mad bombers only target crowds of people who share their hobbies? Who cares what he liked? If he was trying to target a crowd of people, this was the obvious choice. Surely they don't mean to imply that any OU student is unaware of football...
Someone said students can get in with their IDs...
No, they need tickets, but there are plenty of scalpers outside the stadium; plenty of opportunity to get a ticket with no record of it.
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