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
Ping for the list... I will comment below.
Nam Vet
Time in this article is set at about 7:30 pm.
We've already pretty much established that Boren is on "damage control" duty. Boren's statements regarding a wider plot doesn't jive with what PhiKapMom has reported, and he has contradicted himself a number of times.
Surveillance tapes didn't spot him trying to enter, but does that mean he didn't? IMHO it doesn't negate or confirm anything - just that nothing is on tape.
(What is my reasoning? I was assaulted once and there was a camera just a few feet away, but it didn't catch anything as it was pointed in the opposite direction...)
Someone needs to provide Adam Smith with pictures of those gate security officers to let him identify who came up to him and said he turned Hinrichs away from the gate.
The statement about Hinrichs not liking football is odd. How would OU officials know this? Just because someone doesn't buy season tickets does that mean that he doesn't like football. I haven't been to a game in years, but I still like football.
Also, just because records don't reflect that he bought a ticket doesn't mean that he didn't have one. PhiKapMom received an email asking her why she didn't use her leftover ticket to that game... Someone said students can get in with their IDs, PhiKapMom can you confirm?
Well, that's all for now from me...
That's how I see it too Nam. Some will calm themselves with this article, but having followed this from the beginning this article appears to me as nothing more than pure spin... The Oklahoman is saying they "confirmed" what the FBI says, but who besides the FBI and OU has reviewed the tapes?
Sorry... should have addressed you as Nam Vet. I sincerely apologize and thank you for your service.
There are cameras everywhere these days (including in ATMs).
Hopefully someone already has an FOIA filed for those tapes, but seeing as the search warrant is already sealed I would assume that ALL evidence in this case is sealed as well. It would be interesting to hear the reasoning they give if the FOIA request is refused - "National Security"?
Hinrichs' absence from the security tapes does not rule out his attempted entry into the stadium. As smart as he was, Hinrichs' may have used a simple disguise to make it difficult to ID him from surveillance tapes. A baseball hat pulled down low over his eyes and some tinted glasses would make it almost impossible to confirm his presence at a stadium entrance from video tapes. Another article has evidence that the bomb was detonated by remote control, which makes me think someone else triggered the blast at a time when that person though Hinrichs would be in the stadium.
Here's another real belly laugh, from Triangle Fraternity. Found it at SoonerFans forum while looking for some smack talk for the game tomorrow. Leaving off the poster's name for attribution.
~~~~~~
"Alright, I've finally gotten some inside information. This guy was a member of my fraternity. Several of the active members have been interviewed by the FBI, and the investigation seems to be winding down. A paraphrased summary from an alumni close to the active chapter:
Hinrichs was bright young man who was interested in rocketry, explosives, and military hardware, interests he'd had since childhood. He was involved with his friends and the fraternity. There is no hint he ever had any intention of killing himself or anyone else. He wasn't a loner nor did he ever express any idealogish political or religious beliefs, although he was born and raised a Lutheran. His future plans probably were along the lines of rocket science and he certainly had the mind and personality, if he was perhaps just a bit more social than the stereotypical Rocket scientist. He was a fine person in good standing and a dear friend to many. He will be missed.
I and the rest of the fraternity have been asked not to release any more details until basically the FBI has concluded its investigation. I just really felt the need to get this out for some of those here who felt the need to jump to such extreme conclusions."
~~~~~~~~~~
Dontcha just love that the investigation "seems to be winding down"?
Ummm, if all these things are true, then shouldn't they be demanding that the FBI find the boy's killer, whoever did this awful thing to him?
Another possibility is that someone else triggered the blast at a time when that person thought Hinrichs' backpack and the bomb (but not Hinrichs himself) would be in the stadium.
After looking at this wording carefully, my follow up question would be, If there was not a camera positioned on it, was there a camera positioned on something else, but within which camera's field of view the bench was visible?
The second point I would make is that I recall that the recent Bali bombs were set off by other folks via cell phone. Was any evidence of a cell phone found? If so, have the account records been reviewed for the last incoming call? (If the bomb carrier was chickening out (or didn't even know of the bomb), was it set off when a third party determined that the mission would fail?)
Time to take off my tinfoil for the night.
"Another article has evidence that the bomb was detonated by remote control, which makes me think someone else triggered the blast at a time when that person though Hinrichs would be in the stadium."
Several theories at this point:
1.) The theory you put forth above is plausible
2.) they were watching and set it off when they saw he didn't get in
3.) He was tinkering with the bomb itself and accidently set it off...4.) He may also have been attempting to remove the bomb from the backpack and affix it to his person.
5.) Maybe he had second thoughts and was trying to disarm it? (not likely given the amount of explosives in his apt. Seems this was not a rash decision.
The fact remains that none of these theories jive with Boren's, his father's or the FBI's public assessments/announcements. Neither does the evidence that a second backpack was found with explosives inside located in the parking garage.
LOL this is rich...
" There is no hint he ever had any intention of killing himself or anyone else"
Then why the bomb??? As you said, then this should be a murder investigation.
I also found it interesting they are talking about ideology again. First the father said he was "apolitical" but according to a FReeper who heard an interview with the father today he is now saying his son was "conservative".
I also laugh at the "jumping to extreme conclusions". Wasn't it OU itself that jumped to the "extreme conclusion" that this was a suicide only an hour or so after the event?
Not ignoring your request... finding the post that shows a pic of the removed bench. Be back with it soon. (o:
Here is a picture of the area after the bench had been removed. Credit to Rte66 for posting it here at FR.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1495058/reply?c=3866
(I remember seeing one with a scorch mark on the ground, looks like this has been cleaned up - I'll keep looking for that picture and will post a link. Also, keep in mind that the person was hunched over the bomb and probably absorbed a good deal of the impact. I'll spare the graphic details that have been reported...)
Thanks newzjunkey for directing PhiKapMom to that post. I just did the same thing on my last post - forgetting to alert the one who asked for the picture link! I must be getting tired. (o:
Link to the photo your requested at this post - forgot to put your handle in the To: spot. (o:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1498857/posts?page=18#18
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