Blast kills one at University of Oklahoma

[kbsooner21]

Police probe apparent suicide near packed football stadium



Updated: 11:38 p.m. ET Oct. 1, 2005
NORMAN, Okla. - One person was killed in an explosion near a packed football stadium at the University of Oklahoma on Saturday night in what authorities said appeared to be a suicide.

The blast, in a traffic circle about 100 yards from Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, could be heard by some in the crowd of 84,000, but university President David Boren said no one inside the stadium was ever in danger.

“We are apparently dealing with an individual suicide, which is under full investigation,” Boren said in a statement. There was no information about the person who was killed, and no reports of any other injuries.

A police bomb squad detonated explosives found at the site of the blast. The area near the stadium was searched by bomb-sniffing dogs.

Jaclyn Hull, an OU freshman who left the game shortly before the explosion, said she saw “a little bit of smoke, about as much as you would see coming up from a grill.”

Officers cordoned off an area west of the stadium after the explosion and nobody was allowed out of the stadium for about a half-hour after the blast, which occurred shortly before 8 p.m., about halftime of the Sooners’ game against Kansas State. The game continued.

[kbsooner21]

NORMAN, Okla. -- A student with "emotional difficulties" has been identified as the person who blew himself up Saturday evening at the University of Oklahoma. The FBI says the remains are believed to be those of a 21-year old Joel Hinrichs, a mechanical engineering major from Colorado Springs, Colorado.


University President David Boren says the blast was an apparent suicide.

The student's father says he communicated with his son and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He says his son was a very intelligent and private individual who somehow lost the confidence that his life would be a good one.

The young man apparently detonated an explosive device attached to his body near Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, where more than 84,000 people were watching a football game.

No one else was hurt in the explosion.

[rented mule]

If you dig deeper on this one, you'll find that there are reports that he had Muslim ties and fanatical literature in his apartment. There was also reports of a second device that was planted elsewhere and detonated ont he scene by the bomb squad.

I've never heard of anyone committing suicide with a bomb unless they were looking to take other people with them.

This one smells funny to me. I've always wondered why we haven't had suicide bombings domestically and I have a feeling this was going to be one.