Rolla Anthrax Scare Results in Student Sugar Hoax
Jim Salter/Associated Press
Issue date: 3/1/07 Section: National Briefs
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ROLLA, Mo. (AP) - What at first looked like a potential case of terrorism at the University of Missouri-Rolla turned out to be a despondent international student making bogus threats, authorities said.
Still, those threats threw this south-central Missouri town into a brief panic Tuesday. Charges were filed Wednesday against the student, 22-year-old Sujithkumar Venkatramolla, Phelps County prosecutor Courtney George said. He was charged with two counts of first-degree assault of a law enforcement officer and one count each of armed criminal action, resisting arrest, false report of a bomb threat and making terrorist threats.
Missouri-Rolla spokeswoman Mary Helen Stoltz said Venkatramolla is a civil engineering student from Nazambad, India. She was not aware of any previous disciplinary issues involving him.
"Thankfully, this is a false alarm," chancellor John F. Carney III said.
Interim Police Chief Mark Kearse said the student was apparently depressed over grades.
The incident happened around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday when the suspect walked into the Butler-Carlton Civil Engineering Building waving a paper bag and holding a knife, saying he had a bomb and anthrax, interim Police Chief Mark Kearse said.
When the man refused to drop the knife, a university officer shot him with a stun gun.
A white, powdery substance was found on the man and near a desk in a room in the civil engineering building. But preliminary tests showed the substance was nothing more than powdered sugar, said Lt. Col. David Boyle of the Missouri National Guard's 7th Civil Support Team at Fort Leonard Wood. Extensive searches found no trace of any explosives.
The substance was sent to a lab for further testing. "We personally expect those to come back with similar results," Boyle said.
The civil engineering building is open 24 hours a day. Authorities said it was not uncommon for students and faculty to be there in the wee hours of the morning studying or working in labs.
Still, those threats threw this south-central Missouri town into a brief panic Tuesday. Charges were filed Wednesday against the student, 22-year-old Sujithkumar Venkatramolla, Phelps County prosecutor Courtney George said. He was charged with two counts of first-degree assault of a law enforcement officer and one count each of armed criminal action, resisting arrest, false report of a bomb threat and making terrorist threats.
Missouri-Rolla spokeswoman Mary Helen Stoltz said Venkatramolla is a civil engineering student from Nazambad, India. She was not aware of any previous disciplinary issues involving him.
"Thankfully, this is a false alarm," chancellor John F. Carney III said.
Interim Police Chief Mark Kearse said the student was apparently depressed over grades.
The incident happened around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday when the suspect walked into the Butler-Carlton Civil Engineering Building waving a paper bag and holding a knife, saying he had a bomb and anthrax, interim Police Chief Mark Kearse said.
When the man refused to drop the knife, a university officer shot him with a stun gun.
A white, powdery substance was found on the man and near a desk in a room in the civil engineering building. But preliminary tests showed the substance was nothing more than powdered sugar, said Lt. Col. David Boyle of the Missouri National Guard's 7th Civil Support Team at Fort Leonard Wood. Extensive searches found no trace of any explosives.
The substance was sent to a lab for further testing. "We personally expect those to come back with similar results," Boyle said.
The civil engineering building is open 24 hours a day. Authorities said it was not uncommon for students and faculty to be there in the wee hours of the morning studying or working in labs.
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