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
Sad and scary.
To be fair, we should find out if they are also putting surveillance cameras up around the campus of Francis Tuttle Tech Center, too.
I just got through speaking via email with Mark Tapscott. He has requested I post a link to his most recent blog entry here at FreeRepublic. It is an Open Letter to OU President Boren...
DEAR PRESIDENT BOREN: What Did You Know About Joel Henry Hinrichs and When Did You Know It?
http://tapscottscopydesk.blogspot.com/2005/10/dear-president-boren-what-did-you-know.html
A hearty Freeper THANK YOU! to Mark for keeping the pressure on for the facts to be reported!
Thank you so much for that link. It's good to see it covered at least a little by MSNBC.
Hinrichs' father appears to be a very intelligent, well-spoken man. I do feel for him in all of this... He made an interesting remark about taking note a year ago of the changes in his son.
The young lady from the Muslim Student's association was also pretty well spoken. She kept saying she was confused about everything - she repeated this about 20 times! She definitely knows how to reinforce an idea in the minds of the viewers - repetition. Does she know this politician's tool of the trade? Who knows...
She is right that the media isn't perhaps doing as good a job as it should reporting this but she really missed the mark, IMHO as far as saying they are reporting completely on speculations. I personally don't think off the record testimony from LEOs is "speculation". I also don't think that eyewitness accounts and interviews are speculation either.
She basically blamed the media for painting things a certain way, but she fails to acknowledge why everyone would be so "nervous at first" as Rita Cosby puts it. The young woman says we're all nervous and there are a lot of unanswered questions. Well, that goes without saying.
Freeper Flattorney has provided a link to an MSNBC video report at post #63. THANK YOU FLATTORNEY!
Rita Cosby interviewed Joel Hinrichs' father as well as the female leader of the Muslim Student's Association.
(My comments can be read at #65.)
LRocks, when I click on that link it takes me to post a reply to Rte66.
Now I don't know what time zone you are in but your posting shows up at 1:35:22 PDT where I am. Now maybe at that time in the morning it looks like the area after the bench was removed to you, but I can assure you it is just a window to post a reply to Rte66. :-)
LOL - could you tell I was getting ditzy or what? A bad link and then kept self-posting instead of replying to the person requesting the info...
By post #25 I was getting back on track... (o;
Here's the REAL link again, in case anyone is curious about the bench. Again, this picture was apparently taken after the area was hosed down.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1495058/posts?page=3866#3866
I caught the interview with the student. I just about threw the remote at the tv listening to that and having Rita essentially agree with the woman. It was sickening.
And yet Boren has also told us about the new security cameras they are installing, right?
Something does not compute.
Apparently they are discrediting student Adam Smith's statements... If they have truly investigated and showed this young man pictures of the gate guards and he couldn't identify any of them, then they should some out and say so directly.
Cosby treated her with kid gloves the whole time. If she is coming forward representing the community it's time to ask some serious questions... How could she possibly be confused by people wanting answers?
"The cameras don't show anything; we are planning on installing cameras."
Or like the OU Muslim mouthpiece saying----" Hinrich's roommate Cheema is an atheist; he's mad at God y'know."
Little bit of WTF if you ask me.
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That stuff is probably not THAT important to Boren. Getting one's orders from the Saudi Government would rank much higher.
Speculatin' cap doffed: I wonder if any university presidents own a lot of Citibank stock?
Anything coming out of Boren's mouth at this time is suspect. Parse his words. I know there are no cameras in the parking garages because of PC and threats of law suits so why should I beieve they were in the stadium.
I believe his statement they are installing video surveillance that came out earlier this week.
"Or like the OU Muslim mouthpiece saying----" Hinrich's roommate Cheema is an atheist; he's mad at God y'know.""
I recalled that statement when Ms. Cosby spoke of Fazal Cheema and stated he was a Muslim. The young women did not correct her...
The other thing that's interesting is that the person who said that "atheist" statement was only named and didn't appear anywhere else in the article. There was nothing to indicate how he could know such a personal thing, or why we should take his word over other reports to the contrary.
Funny how they expect us to believe the word of someone they could've picked up off the street, but reporters revealing statements of "officals speaking under condition of anonymity" means reporting on "speculations". Even more ludicrous is when it's the AP, MSNBC and others saying and agreeing with these things and in the excerpt I posted in a link above we can see that this is a common practice for them...
Please see my statements at #77 & 79 on this thread... This is unbelievable stuff going.
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