Alexander Kinyua, accused Md. cannibal, was a "Virginia Tech waiting to happen," report says
(CBS/AP) BALTIMORE, Md. - Months before Maryland college student Alexander Kinyua admitted to cutting up a man with a knife and eating some of his body parts, he was kicked out of an ROTC program for a violent outburst and was referred to as a "Virginia Tech waiting to happen" by a military instructor, according to a campus police report .
Pictures: Personal photos of accused Md. cannibal
Kinyua, 21, a native of Kenya and a student at Morgan State University, admitted using a knife to kill and carve up 37-year-old Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie before eating his heart and part of his brain, the Hartford County Sheriff's Office said last week. Investigators didn't give a possible motive for why Kinyua would kill Agyei-Kodie, a native of Ghana who was also a graduate student at Morgan State and stayed with the Kinyua family for about six weeks at their townhouse in the Baltimore suburb of Joppatowne.
According to a Morgan State campus report obtained by The Baltimore Sun, Kinyua was kicked out of his school's ROTC program in December 2011 after he punched holes in the walls of the cadet computer lab. ROTC officials declined to discuss the reason why Kinyua was "disenrolled" in January in the college-based U.S. military program that allows students to be commissioned as officers when they graduate, according to The Associated Press.
Kinyua was barred from campus until a meeting with school officials, but they didn't think a psychological evaluation was needed, according to the campus police. One officer did call a counseling center emergency number, but then released Kinyua to his father when they got no response.
It was after the classroom outburst that Staff Sgt. Robert Edwards, a senior military instructor at the school, said Kinyua was a "Virginia Tech waiting to happen." The campus report does not provide any reason why Edwards would mention the 2007 massacre in which 32 students were killed by a student gunman who then committed suicide. Officials said Monday that Edwards was deployed to Afghanistan.
In February, Kinyua referred to Virginia Tech and "other past university killings around the country" in a Facebook post, warning that "ethnic cleansing is the policy, strategy and tactics that will affect you, directly or indirectly in the coming months," the AP reported.
And in a separate case on May 19, police said Kinyua beat a man with a baseball bat on the Morgan State campus, fracturing his skull and making him lose sight in one eye. Kinyua was freed on $220,000 bail just days before Agyei-Kodie was killed.
Agyei-Kodie's relatives from Ghana told the AP that he spoke to them on Mother's Day, two weeks before he was killed. They said he was ready to come home and get a job, and dreamed of someday becoming president of Ghana.
"We took turns to talk to him and he expressed his desire to return home within months. He even asked my husband to start looking for jobs for him," said younger sister Irene Konadu Asante. "My brother's dream is to become the president of Ghana and that is why he had spent so much time educating himself in the U.S."
Agyei-Kodie was reported missing on May 25 before police found his remains at the Kinyua family residence five days later. Kinyua is being held without bond on a murder charge.More on Crimesider
June 1, 2012 - Alexander Kinyua, accused Md. cannibal, was on bail for another assault prior to his arrest, reports say
May 31, 2012 - Alexander Kinyua, 21, arrested for murder, eating body parts, Maryland police say