Body, guns, explosives found in Fla. college dorm
University of Central Florida police block off a street near the Tower 1 dorm, tall building center, after explosive devices were found by authorities investigating the apparent suicide of a college student in the dorm, Monday, March 18, 2013, in Orlando, Fla. / AP Photo
Updated 1:51 p.m. ET
ORLANDO, Fla. A college student killed himself in a dorm at the University of Central Florida and authorities found explosives and guns in the room early Monday, authorities said, leading to the evacuation of hundreds of students and cancellation of morning classes.
University spokesman Grant Heston said normal campus operations resumed around noon after the makeshift devices were taken away from the dorm, which remained closed.
Authorities didn't immediately say what the student's intentions may have been.
"Obviously you never want somebody to commit suicide, but knowing what we know about what was in his room, we feel better at least that no one else was hurt," Heston said.
University police were called to the dorm around 12:20 a.m. after a fire alarm went off, Heston said. While they were on their way to the scene, a 911 call came in about a man with a gun.
Arriving officers found a man dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a residence at the Tower 1 dorm. Heston said the man was a student at the university.
Heston said the dorm has suites, with a main kitchen and living area, along with four bedrooms. The dead man was inside one of the rooms. Inside the room, Heston said, police also found what they described as an assault weapon, a handgun and makeshift explosive devices. Florida law prohibits the possession of guns on state university campuses.
He said the Orange County Sheriff's Office and the FBI are helping with the investigation. The sheriff's bomb squad was examining the explosive devices Monday morning.
"It's unnerving, for sure," one young woman told CBS Affiliate WKMG. "Definitely not used to it, especially living on campus. You hear about that a lot living off campus, but it's especially rare living on campus."
About 500 students were evacuated from the dorm, and Heston said it would remain closed until authorities give an all-clear on the building.
On Monday morning, flashing signs around the campus alerted students and staff about the canceled classes. Campus shuttle buses were lined up about a half-mile from campus, with drivers standing by once the campus opens. The university's main campus in Orlando has about 51,000 students.
Antonio Whitehead, 21, a junior from Hollywood, Fla., said he heard the fire alarm go off after midnight and thought it was a routine alarm. He headed outside where he saw a crowd already heading across the street from the dorm.
"All of a sudden, I felt the crowd move a little faster. And a police officer with a machine gun or something told everyone to start moving a lot faster," he said.
Whitehead, who has lived in the dorm for two years, said the students were moved to an open area about 1,000 feet from UCF Arena. The area is a busy section of the campus, with restaurants and shops nearby.
Grant Hernandez, 20, a sophomore from Orlando who also is a resident at the dorm, said he woke up sometime after midnight when police were evacuating the building.
"We weren't allowed to get our cars. We weren't allowed to get our personal effects," Hernandez said.
"All we saw were people running, and they were not telling us what was going on," he added. "We were left unsure of things. It wasn't till about 6 o'clock that we got more information and a clearer picture of what was going on." He said officers on the scene began providing more information, and students checked updates on the university's website.
A statement there said the UCF Arena would open to accommodate displaced students. Counselors would be available to talk to students who need assistance.
The Tower 1 dorm is part of the school's popular Towers at Knight Plaza apartment building complex, according to UCF's website. Tower 1 has seven floors. The typical apartment layout has four bedroom and two bathrooms, the website says. Heston said the student who died had three roommates.
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Democrat Mass Murderers/NRA Growth
Why is it that none of the disturbed and evil men, who steal guns, then go and kill movie-goers and children in school, has ever been identified as a conservative NRA member?
Ft Hood~~~ Registered Democrat ~ Muslim
Columbine ~~~ Too young to vote; both families were registered Democrats and progressive liberals
Virginia Tech ~~~ Wrote hate mail to President Bush and to his staff ~ Registered Democrat
Colorado Theater ~~~ Registered Democrat; staff worker on the Obama campaign; Occupy Wall Street participant; progressive liberal
Connecticut School Shooter- ~~~ Registered Democrat; hated Christians
Common thread is that all of these shooters were progressive liberal Democrats.
INTERESTING, isn't it?
""""Authorities didn't immediately say what the student's intentions may have been.""""
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concerning "intentions", the police should ask this question to every American that owns a gun, maybe more.
"au revoir"
"police also found what they described as an assault weapon"
LOL!!! If it doesn't look like Grampa's old hunting rifle then it must be an assault weapon. These idiots make me laugh.
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Beside having a High Point .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol, Seevakumaran also possessed a blowback-operated, semi-automatic "tactical .22 caliber rifle" with a 28-bullet magazine, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and high capacity magazines, including a drum magazine similar to the type used in the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo.
Does that gun classified as an assaulted weapon. It sure sound like it to me.
From a strictly economic point of view, the respected economist Milton Friedman has keenly observed the role of the government has inadvertently protected the drug cartels. By keeping drugs illegal, the government has kept the little guy from entering the market. This lack of competition has kept the prices of these illegal commodities high. What better motivation is there than money to get a gun and use it to take this illegal profit? To make matters worse, how would you feel about gun control if your own government was responsible for supplying firearms to drug traffickers?
The United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has developed a violent method to fight the never-ending war on drugs called "gunwalking."
These sting operations have allowed licensed firearms dealers to sell to unsuspecting criminals in hopes that these weapons will be tracked to drug cartel leaders. The largest of these sting operations, Operation Fast and Furious, has managed to collect only one-third of the total weapons dispersed as of February 2012. Some of these guns have been found on crime scenes on both sides of the border.
We have a government supplying weapons to criminals, assassinating "suspected" criminals without due process and, at the very same time, attempting to disarm a collectively innocent population only hoping to protect themselves from the enemy. The majority of the population is becoming increasingly unsatisfied with the behavior of congress, yet there are voters among us who are vehemently opposed to gun ownership.
The only role of government should be protection from violence, but what if they were the ones with the gun pointed at us? What if our government has become nothing more than a cartel themselves, engaged in price fixing, allocation of customers, allocation of territories and the division of profits?
Imagine a new rule in place requiring you to pay for something that you cannot afford, and morally have an obligation to avoid. Imagine your decision to protect yourself from this financial burden by ignoring the violent threats that have come through the mail. Imagine after ignoring those threats, the senders of those threatening letters finally arrive at your door, gun in hand, with an intent to kidnap you using intimidation and torture to get the money they say you owe them. Imagine if you tried to protect yourself from this physical force. You could be shot dead.
This new rule is a law. This payment is a tax. These thugs are wearing uniforms that read "IRS" in big, bold, intimidating letters on the front and back. That's violence; that's tyranny of the majority; that's a gun pointed at you.
With this new perspective, who is the real enemy here? If the guns leave, then "We the People" leaves with it. The authority of the government stems from "the consent of the governed." The government does not rule us; the government serves us. We must not trust that through successive generations we will become safer as a nation by slowly sacrificing our rights in exchange for pseudo-safety from the state.
The war on drugs has given us nothing. The war on drugs has given criminals a motivation for profit and, as a consequence, murder. We currently have a hypocritical government shouting anti-gun rhetoric behind a blockade of firepower. We have a government agency giving guns to murderous thugs and a presidential administration aiming to take yours away. The solution is simple: destroy the illegal drug trade and the tools of that trade will die with it. Ending the war on drugs will keep us much safer than any anti-gun legislation. There are not any guns used in the production and distribution of alcohol except where it is illegal. Simple common sense will reveal how ineffective the war on drugs has been.
So actually, our failed WAR on Drugs has indeed given us something -- a motivation for capitalistic profit through free trade, and as a consequence, murder.
Great!
The 1st Amendment was written when there was no CBS, no ADC, no CNN, no e-mail, and no Facebook or twitter. Does this mean the Constitution doesn't cover free speech using these venues?
It's sad when a nation is filled with fools and sheep who are ready to pee their pants because someone has a gun. It's even sadder when some idiot thinks the Constitution only covers muskets. You have to be an imbecile to think this.
It's also sad when fools actually believe the 2nd Amendment gives us our freedom to keep and bear arms. This right is unalienable, and the 2nd Amendment merely affirms it. Do you think we should allow people to be slaves, even if the Constitution said it was okay, or forbid people from speaking their minds, even if the Constitution did not allow it?
Freedom is inherent, not given to us by what's written on paper, or by politicians in Washington, or the voting public. We have the right to be free, and the right to defend this freedom with force of arms, and this is how it's going to stay.
Criminals don't need guns to kill liberals. A loud shout will give them a heart attack.
The 1st Amendment was written when there was no CBS, no ADC, no CNN, no e-mail, and no Facebook or twitter. Does this mean the Constitution doesn't cover free speech using these venues?]
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does the constitution reference a 'well regulated' freedom of speech ... like it does when it speaks about the militia?
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what's the current status of osama bin laden? how many combat troops are in iraq? what's the schedule for withdraw of all combat troops from afghanistan?
facts, dates, and times are left to you to discount, marginalize, and ignore as necessary to maintain your pre-set belief that nothing obama does is of any value.
Dead, thanks to 10 years of American military action, and ST6. Not Obama.
>> "how many combat troops are in iraq?"
"All American military forces were mandated to withdraw from Iraqi territory by 31 December 2011 under the terms of a bilateral agreement signed in 2008 by President Bush." Not Obama.
>> "what's the schedule for withdraw of all combat troops from afghanistan?"
Even obama has stated he wants a "gradual drawdown" of troops.. this after he injected 17,000 t0 30,000 more troops into the fray (remember that?). At best, we're looking at 68,000 troops still in Afghanistant at the start of 2014. Not obama.
Next?