“For the second time in two days, the University of Akron received a bomb threat regarding campus buildings. But unlike Wednesday, UA police has already arrested a suspect believed to send Thursday’s threat. John D. Ford, 27 and a resident of Akron, was taken into custody by UA police mid-afternoon and was charged with inducing panic and making a false alarm, a third and fourth degree felony, respectively.”
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For the second time in two days, the University of Akron received a bomb threat regarding campus buildings.
But unlike Wednesday, UA police has already arrested a suspect believed to send Thursday’s threat.
Jason D. Ford, 27 and a resident of Akron, was taken into custody by UA police mid-afternoon and was charged with inducing panic and making a false alarm, a third and fourth degree felony, respectively.
The threat was sent Tuesday night at 10 p.m. to the student radio station WZIP-FM but was not discovered until 8 a.m. the following morning. Once it was discovered, Kolbe Hall, the site of the station was evacuated.
According to University of Akron police chief Paul Callahan, the message stated that a bomb was in the building and would detonate within a couple of hours. Callahan said there was no way to access the account but since nothing happened in the 10 hours between the time it was sent and the time it was accessed, there was no reason to think anything would happen in the morning.
The building was vacated at approximately 9 a.m. Bomb-sweeping dogs were sent in but no device was found. The building was reopened just after noon and classes resumed at 3 p.m.
You can run the whole gamut on why someone would do this, Callahan said. Maybe they have a beef with society or the university. There is really no way to tell.
A threat was e-mailed Wednesday to a secretary in the Auburn Science and Engineering Center but no explosive device was found. Ford was not charged with making Wednesday’s threat.
The university is working with the FBI and Homeland Security to track down the origin of the e-mail.
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