An OU bomber post-script

Remember Joel Hinrichs III, the University of Oklahoma student who blew himself up outside the OU football stadium during last season's OU-Kansas State game?  Michelle Malkin notes this Daily Oklahoman story by Jane Glenn Cannon, who sat in on a recent Norman City Council meeting that included a report to city officials by Sgt. George Mauldin, head of the Norman Police Department's bomb squad.  The Daily Oklahoman story requires registration and will be moved to their archives shortly, so I will quote it here at length:

NORMAN - A Norman police bomb expert said Tuesday he does not believe University of Oklahoma student Joel Henry Hinrichs III committed suicide by blowing himself up outside a packed football stadium.

"I believe he accidentally blew himself up," Sgt. George Mauldin said.

Mauldin said Hinrichs, 21, an engineering student, had two to three pounds of triacetone triperoxide, commonly known as TATP, in a backpack in his lap when it exploded Oct. 1.

When asked if he believed Hinrichs meant to enter the stadium with the explosives, Mauldin replied, "I don't believe he intended for an explosion to occur at that spot (on the park bench)."

"Some of us will forever wonder what he (Hinrichs) was doing at that time, at that place," Police Chief Phil Cotten said.

Hinrichs was sitting on a park bench 173 yards from the OU stadium during the second quarter of OU's night game against Kansas State when the TATP inside his backpack detonated.

"Someone saw him fiddling with it (the backpack) shortly before the explosion occurred. I think he got cocky, and it went off," Mauldin said.

... Mauldin, head of the Norman bomb unit, said investigators detonated at the scene the remains of Hinrichs' backpack, which contained wires, a battery and a circuit board.

Graphic photos of Hinrichs' headless body still upright on the park bench next to a tattered backpack were shown to the council.

Mauldin said investigators found "quite a bit more" explosive material inside Hinrichs' Parkview apartment on Sooner Drive, southeast of Lindsey Street and Stinson Drive.

A pint-size Tupperware container on a counter was filled with TATP Hinrichs had manufactured, Mauldin said.

A pill bottle packed with TATP with a fuse stuck in it was found behind a computer, he said.

The FBI reported in November that 0.4 pound of TATP was found inside Hinrichs' apartment. TATP is the most unstable explosive known and is "the explosive of choice" in the Middle East, Mauldin said. "It is so volatile, even a small amount on the tip of a finger will explode if it comes within 8 inches of a match," Mauldin said.

Investigators also found a quantity of acetone and hydrogen, components necessary for manufacturing TATP, inside the student's apartment.

"We found evidence of him compressing TATP, which is foolhardy, given its properties," Mauldin said.

... Officers also removed "a lot" of military rounds, many of them live, and pieces of metal from the student's apartment, Mauldin said.

Metal fragments often are added to explosives to make them more deadly, he said.

The explosives Hinrichs had outside the stadium were pure, with no fragmentation added, Mauldin said.

However, he said, the student kept careful notes of experimentation with explosives in the weeks leading up to the Oct. 1 blast.

Notes indicated Hinrichs experimented with adding fragmentation to explosives as if "he were trying to make a damaging product," Mauldin said.

Most of Hinrichs' experiments occurred at Red Rock Canyon, according to the notes.

Mauldin's report debunks earlier stories about shrapnel damage at the scene of the bomb blast.  And his conclusion seems reasonable -- Hinrichs was probably trying to determine whether or not he could carry a backpack laden with explosives into the stadium, and how easy it would be to include an electronic detonation device with the bomb and operate it from his backpack.  Using live explosives for his little experiment led to his demise.  We can be grateful for his foolishness.

The amount of chemical reagents, synthesized explosives, shrapnel-producing materials, and detonation devices found in his apartment seems to conclusively rule out a common suicide.  This kid was planning on manufacturing and detonating a big, deadly bomb, taking himself and scores of others out with it.

Hinrichs was a delusional, disaffected kid who was easily led into the cult of death surrounding radical Islam.  But whether he did this on his own, or was given guidance and a "mission" by others, will probably never be known.

My previous posts on this incident are here and here.

Comments

[rainlillie]

Hateful Christians
I'm trying to understand why people who call themselves "Christians" have so much hate in their hearts. They claim to follow the teachings of Christ, but Jesus loved and accepted all people. He believed that everyone's soul was worth saving and he tried to change those who needed to change with love not hate.

Now we have these hateful Christians protesting outside of our troops funerals, saying that God made 911 and hurricane Katrina happen to punish us for people being gay and women having abortions. Yet, they stand behind a man like George Bush who has created nothing but death, destruction and chaos in Iraq. . . Oh That's right they don't give a damn about the Iraqis because they're Muslims. Another thing that's rather interesting is most of these hateful Christians are against abortion and for the death penalty. How can that be?
Doesn't God teach us that all life is sacred. ? We are all born with sin children are not born innocent. therefore if a killer repents according to the bible he'll go to heaven. So if this is true shouldn't that person have a right to live too? these hateful Christians can spout every verse in the bible, but actions speak louder than words. Why is it so hard for them to accept that there are people who actually think differently than they do, worship differently than they do, love differently than they do. Why do the hateful Christians feel the need to force their beliefs on others? These hateful Christians have a lot in common with the Muslim extremists. I have total faith in my God, therefore I don't feel the need to run around and try to do his job for him. If being gay or having an abortion is wrong, people will pay at the end of their lives.

[Mike]

Well, I'm glad you got that off your chest.

Thanks for sharing.

[Dominic]

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