Harvard Bomb Threat Suspect Turns Out To Be Stressed Student, Is Arrested And Charged

Rob Fox12 years ago

I think we all saw this one coming.

Yesterday, Harvard was evacuated after a bomb threat was sent to the school. Turns out it was also finals week, an odd coincidence if there ever was one. After a sweep by the Massachusetts State Police bomb sniffing K9 unit, it was determined that there were, in fact, no bombs on campus. It then became clear that some Harvard kid was trying to get out of a final that he was wildly underprepared for, which in Harvard terms means he had only studied for three days and was not confident they could score above a C+.

Today, the bomb hoaxer, Eldo Kim, a 20-year-old Harvard student, was arrested and charged for the threats. Kim was scheduled to take a final exam at 9am yesterday in one of the threatened buildings, Emerson Hall. Funny how the literally half dozen plus law enforcement agencies investigating the bomb threats cross-referenced which students were taking exams in those buildings that day, huh?

The U.S. Attorney’s office said that Kim emailed bomb threats to two Harvard University officials as well as the president of the Harvard Crimson, the school’s student run newspaper. The emailed threats said the following, according to Boston’s CBS affiliate:

“shrapnel bombs placed in science center, sever hall, emerson hall, thayer hall, 2/4. guess correctly. be quick for they will go off soon.”

The creepiness of that email is certainly authentic; that’s for sure. Kim is set to appear in U.S. District Court on Wednesday.

The threats garnered the attention of, among other agencies, the FBI, the ATF, the Secret Service, the Harvard Police Department, the Cambridge Police Department, the Boston Police Department, and the Massachusetts State Police.

The biggest question of all, though, is why Kim was so worried about his final exam in the first place when he knew the professor was just going to inflate his grade anyway? Some people just don’t think.

The maximum penalties under the bomb hoax statute are five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.

Here’s Kim’s bio from the Institute of Quantitive Social Science at Harvard.

So sad to see a flourishing break-dancing career wasted, not to mention an orphaned Schnauzer. Does your selfishness know no bounds, Eldo Kim?

What a dumbass.

[via CBS Boston]