Bomb threat arrest made
Published Oct. 9, 2007
A St. Louis resident suspected of calling in two fraudulent bomb threats to the MU campus was arrested on Oct. 5 in St. Louis following an investigation. Nathan A. Simms is suspected of making bomb threats directed toward the School of Journalism in January.
MU Police Capt. Brian Weimer said Simms is being held on $30,000 bond at Boone County Jail after the investigation led to a warrant for Simms's arrest.
Weimer said when the false threat occurred on Jan. 26, 2007, university personnel evacuated Stanley Hall, Gwynn Hall and Neff Hall. Police evacuated students, faculty and staff from the buildings for at least 45 minutes. Police and their search dogs then searched the buildings, but they found no evidence regarding the bomb threat.
Weimer said he could not detail what the threat included due to confidentiality and because there would be a trial.
In a previous Maneater report, School of Journalism Associate Dean Brian Brooks said before this threat, there had not been a bomb threat in the 32 years he had worked with the university.
Brooks said as of February 2006, the journalism school had no evacuation plan, because it did not need one.
Also in a previous report, Gannett Hall Director Pat Cloyd said the evacuation was "a little haphazard," and new procedures were being developed in order to help evacuate the journalism school more efficiently.
Brooks said in the previous report that in a similar situation, officials would use fire alarms to evacuate buildings due to the "maze of rooms and offices" in the school's buildings.