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3/2/2006, 11:57 PM
State Briefs: OU blast wasn't a suicide, bomb expert suggests
By Wire and Correspondent Reports
3/2/2006
NORMAN -- A University of Oklahoma student who blew himself up outside a packed Oklahoma Memorial Stadium probably didn't commit suicide, a Norman police bomb expert said.
"I believe he accidentally blew himself up," Sgt. George Mauldin said Tuesday of Joel Henry Hinrichs III, an engineering student who died in the explosion Oct. 1.
When asked if he believed that Hinrichs, 21, meant to enter the stadium with the explosives, Mauldin said, "I don't believe he intended for an explosion to occur at that spot" on a nearby park bench.
Graphic photos showed that Hinrichs was decapitated and his headless body was still upright on the park bench next to the backpack.
Hinrichs, of Colorado Springs, Colo., had two to three pounds of triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, in a backpack on his lap when it exploded about 173 yards from the stadium during the second quarter of the OU-Kansas State University football game, Mauldin said.
He and Police Chief Phil Cotten briefed Norman city councilors about the explosion and the department's investigation in a conference Tuesday night.
The FBI has said its investigation didn't find any links between Hinrichs and terrorist organizations. Agents have said they might never know whether
the student wanted to get inside the stadium.
By Wire and Correspondent Reports
3/2/2006
NORMAN -- A University of Oklahoma student who blew himself up outside a packed Oklahoma Memorial Stadium probably didn't commit suicide, a Norman police bomb expert said.
"I believe he accidentally blew himself up," Sgt. George Mauldin said Tuesday of Joel Henry Hinrichs III, an engineering student who died in the explosion Oct. 1.
When asked if he believed that Hinrichs, 21, meant to enter the stadium with the explosives, Mauldin said, "I don't believe he intended for an explosion to occur at that spot" on a nearby park bench.
Graphic photos showed that Hinrichs was decapitated and his headless body was still upright on the park bench next to the backpack.
Hinrichs, of Colorado Springs, Colo., had two to three pounds of triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, in a backpack on his lap when it exploded about 173 yards from the stadium during the second quarter of the OU-Kansas State University football game, Mauldin said.
He and Police Chief Phil Cotten briefed Norman city councilors about the explosion and the department's investigation in a conference Tuesday night.
The FBI has said its investigation didn't find any links between Hinrichs and terrorist organizations. Agents have said they might never know whether
the student wanted to get inside the stadium.