3 students arrested for making bomb threat at Arizona State University

Washington, Sep 16 (IANS) Three Arizona State University (ASU) students were accused of making a bomb threat that cleared part of one campus earlier this week, local media reported.

According to the report on Thursday, Trevor Benoit, Peter Fraenkel and Lukas Patton were booked on Tuesday into Maricopa County Jail on a felony charge of interference/disruption of an education institution and misdemeanor offences including false reporting and disorderly conduct in the Monday night disturbance.

Memorial Union and Hassayampa Residential Village were evacuated Monday night as the ASU Police Department searched the grounds and buildings for explosive devices, Xinhua news agency quoted the report as saying.

Police said that Benoit, 21, and Patton, 18, posted on social media that they’d put a bomb in the student union, while Fraenkel allegedly said he’d put a bomb in the dorms, according to the report.

The probable cause statement on Benoit said he told them he had been drinking and posted the threat to get noticed.

Fraenkel allegedly told police the threat was “a bad joke”, the report added.

The report also quoted police as saying that Patton wrote, “it’s OK guys we all put the bomb in the MU”, responding to Benoit and Fraenkel.

About 400 students were evacuated and directed to the campus fitness centre to wait out the search.

The three suspects were tracked down through the social media platform they used and taken into custody, police said, according to the report.