Identified

After yesterday's ominous reporting about an unnamed student who claimed to have anthrax and a bomb at the University of Missouri-Rolla campus, we finally have some new details:

Law enforcement officials responding well before daylight quickly had the situation under control, the community safe and the perpetrator, an apparently overwrought University of Missouri-Rolla student from India, in jail on a $250,000 bond and facing six felony charges, including one for making terrorist threats.


Sujith Venkatramolla, a 22-year-old graduate student, was arrested shortly after officers from the University of Missouri-Rolla and the Rolla Police Department arrived at the Butler-Carlton Civil Engineering Building around 2:30 a.m. The incident started when Venkatramolla brandished a knife and showed a bag he said contained a bomb. He also claimed to have anthrax. At that point he was subdued with a taser gun and taken into custody.

The incident focused nationwide attention on Rolla when metro area TV crews began arriving from St. Louis and Springfield, and reporters from The New York Times and CNN started calling for details.

By the end of the day it was clear the bomb threat and the anthrax scare were bogus, part of an elaborate attempt at a police-assisted suicide. There was no bomb located in the Civil Engineering Building and the substance thought to be anthrax was powdered sugar. Phelps County Prosecuting Attorney Courtney George had filed six felony charges against Venkatramolla. In addition to the count of making terrorist threats, he was charged with three counts of first degree assault on a law enforcement officer, one count of resisting arrest and one count of making a false bomb.

Let's hope that this individual receives the kind of care and treatment that gets at the underlying mental health issues and not just incarceration - which is also appropriate given his terroristic threats made.

UPDATE:
Gateway Pundit has much more on the incident and Venkatramolla's background.