Memorial Placed for Oklahoma Campus Suicide Bomber

The University of Oklahoma has put up a memorial stone marker to a student who died when his homemade bomb exploded on him near the OU football stadium.

A stone with the name of Joel Hinrichs III marks the explosion which killed the troubled young man, whose suicide still remains controversial. The OU student union (the student affairs division) has placed the marker outside the OU football stadium. Hinrichs died Oct. 1, 2005, when the bomb detonated as he rested on a bench outside Memorial Stadium during a football game. Investigators ruled the death an accidental suicide.

The marker has stirred strong emotions in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre. Many question the thinking of school administrators, who many feel do not properly monitor the suspicious behavior of students. Campus crime is minimized, and students are not properly warned of dangers. Hinrichs had tried to obtain ammonium nitrate in the days before this suicide. The fertilizer ingredient was used in the bombing of the Federal building in Oklahoma City. Such bomb-making information is widely shared, and information appears on the Internet. Jihadist literature was found in the young man's living quarters. But student leaders denied any Muslim affiliations. Hinrichs' murderous activities seem to fit the profile of young men, attracted to mass murder as a free lance Jihadist copycat, such as the Bosnian teenager who recently started shooting strangers in a Salt Lake City shopping mall. The Columbine killers placed a bomb, and the Va Tech killer was researching bombmaking, as well as calling in bomb threats.

Sources familiar with the original investigation confirmed that at least one of the components in the bomb used by Joel Henry Hinrichs III near the Saturday night event was a compound called TATP. TATP is triacetone triperoxide, also known as the 'Mother of Satan' by Islamist extremists. Experts say it is made by mixing common household items such as drain cleaner and bleach to create a white powder with a strong smell. Richard Reid, the shoebomber used this chemical.

TATP can explode even if it's merely dropped. Experts warn it can even explode spontaneously.

This memorial controversy mirrors an emotional dispute over the proper type of memorials placed for the students killed at Columbine High School. Should the student shooters, who killed so many, be included in the Columbine memorial? Does not this equate the perpetrators with the victims? It seems to be a safe inference that Joel Hinrichs III was planning to enter the football stadium and detonate the bomb there. The death toll could have been horrific, but because of the volatility of the explosive compound, only the bomb maker was killed.

Sources: KOCO Channel 5 broadcast report, koco.com