# Suicide bombing at OU-KSU football game in Norman, OK **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 2, 2005, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417 "2005-10-02T02:57:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2005, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417/21 "2005-10-02T04:11:11Z")
I’ll make sure to tune in to the news tonight. Surely they must have picked it up by now. Not that it wasn’t horrific as it stands, but the outcome could have been far, far worse. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2005, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417/22 "2005-10-02T04:12:07Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > When I hear about a bombing, I think terrorism, and I was saying if that is correct, it would appear someone did finally go after middle America, and a sporting event. Lest something I say cause another tangent here, I’ll say I changed the words “Al Qaeda” to “terrorism” in the above sentence at the last moment, and shouldn’t have. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2005, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417/23 "2005-10-02T04:18:15Z")
BTW, in case it didn’t come thru too well, my apologies for blowing up at you, **Marley**. Quick on the hair trigger, I guess… My guess is that the police and News stations didn’t want any of the anti-arab viloence to happen after innaccurate reporting lead to speculation in 1995. They didn’t even announce it to the stadium for well over an hour. Our 10 o’clock news had only scetchy reports. I hope more in depth coverage happens. I want to know! Hopefully, it was just a screwball copycat. ---
**Author:** ![don\_Jaime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b4bc9f/32.png) [@don\_Jaime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_Jaime)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2005, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417/24 "2005-10-02T06:05:36Z")
Norman does have links to al-Qaeda; Zacarias Moussaoui applied at a flight school at Max Westheimer Field. There’s still very little information available, including any details about the dead person. It’s still possible this wasn’t meant to be a terrorist attack. But I personally doubt it. Botany/Microbiology is directly across the street from the stadium, and the bomb squad has exploded additional explosives found at the scene. We heard none of it, and we can hear the stadium PA system from our house. First clue was a very brief break-in on channel 4. The regular newscast on 25 barely mentioned it. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2005, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417/25 "2005-10-02T18:42:01Z")
Do they mention the street? Was it the south oval? I’m looking at Google Earth and that is about 100 yards west of the field. ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2005, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417/26 "2005-10-02T21:58:30Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > Do they mention the street? Was it the south oval? > > I’m looking at Google Earth and that is about 100 yards west of the field. It was apparently outside of George Lynn Cross Hall You can find a map of the campus [here](http://www.ou.edu/visitorcenter/vc_campus_map.htm) - Cross is #31. Boren issued a statement stating there was no second device, something was detonated just in case ([here](http://webapps.ou.edu/DLB_Statement_2.pdf) Warning! PDF) I’m not sure if it would be against copyright laws to c&p Boren’s statement here. ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2005, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417/27 "2005-10-02T22:04:10Z")
Sorry **Zebra** , yes, it was on the south oval. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2005, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417/28 "2005-10-02T22:42:26Z")
According to [CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/01/oklahoma.explosion.ap/index.html) it’s considered an individual suicide (as of right now) and is under investigation. ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2005, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417/29 "2005-10-03T02:44:26Z")
They’ve been keeping a pretty tight lid on actual info until they investigated (and rumors have been running rampant around here, of course), but they have released the kid’s name now. They’re definitely calling it suicide. As someone already noted, there was actually only one bomb. The authorities blew up a backpack because they thought it might contain another device, but it did not. We were watching the game about a half-mile north of the Botany building; I don’t know what he had built, but it was pretty damn loud. He was on the south oval, but IIRC there’s actually a fair amount of buildings & space between the stadium and where he was. Someone my sweetie works with got rousted out of her apartment at 4:00 this morning; they evacuated the guy’s entire complex for 48 hours while they searched for any more explosives. [dark humor]I’ve heard of people attempting suicide to get attention; I think this guy has set a new bar![/dh] ---
**Author:** ![don\_Jaime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b4bc9f/32.png) [@don\_Jaime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_Jaime)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2005, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417/30 "2005-10-03T03:24:04Z")
Looks like he died on the east side of Botany/Microbiology, on a bench in front of the greenhouse, directly across the street from the stadium. No indication of motive yet. He’s a third-year engineering student named Joel Henrich. That’s about the sum of what’s been released so far. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2005, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417/31 "2005-10-03T14:03:50Z")
Thanks for posting the updates, guys. I couldn’t find anything more online, but what you all posted is what the local news (4,5,9,25) are saying. My biggest question right now is, why off yourself with a bomb _all by yourself_ ? Seems like for suicide, a bomb is an odd choice unless you’re wanting to take others with you. Was he planning on gettting inside the stadium but chickened out? Very, very odd. I’m assuming the police/FBI will release a statement soon. So far, the most authoritative statement has come from OU pres David Boren. And he didn’t say much at all. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2005, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417/32 "2005-10-03T15:24:14Z")
Well I guess he wanted to be sure it would work. Really though, trying to figure out the logic of a suicide is futile endeavour. ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2005, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417/33 "2005-10-03T17:03:03Z")
[Here](http://www.ou.edu/pubaff/announcement/FBIStatement.pdf) is a link to the FBI’s statement on the investigation. [Here](http://www.ou.edu/pubaff/announcement/DLBLetter.pdf) is another statement made by Boren (this was also emailed out to all the students, etc.). **don Jaime** , his name is actually Joel Hinrichs III. ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2005, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417/34 "2005-10-03T17:23:02Z")
According to the OU newspaper article today, his family said he was depressed and in counseling. Sounds like they’ve got a legit case for saying it was just a suicide. [link](http://www.oudaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/10/03/4340c205ab032) - if it works; they’ve been getting slammed It does sound like he was closer to the stadium than I thought; I haven’t been on the oval since they rebuilt the stadium. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417/35 "2005-10-05T22:08:39Z")
An update from KWTV Channel 9 News, OKC (Begins with the preface that this info is as yet unsubstantiated.) Joel Hinrichs had a student ticket to the game. Two different ticket takers have reported that they requested to inspect the back pack of a young male meeting Hinrichs’ description attempting to enter the stadium and had the request refused, causing them to deny entrance to the game. After the second try, the male meeting the description ran off in the direction of the South Oval. Again, just like the news station report did, I must point out that is not yet substantiated. If true, than his motives did seem to be including others in his suicide. For what reason he would attempt this is still unknown. No suicide note or recording has been found. ::counting our lucky stars:: ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417/36 "2005-10-06T00:29:08Z")
[This article](http://newsok.com/article/1632030/) contains a picture of Hinrichs. **NCB** , the front page of [www.newsok.com](http://www.newsok.com) has a blurb claiming the FBI has determined he never made an attempt to enter the stadium. IMHO, your scenario is much more likely. Who builds a bomb just to commit suicide and not take anyone else along? ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417/37 "2005-10-06T01:20:36Z")
> [@don Jaime](#): > > Norman does have links to al-Qaeda; Zacarias Moussaoui applied at a flight school at Max Westheimer Field. I take it you got that information from [this website?](http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/) Hardly a reliable source of information, I’d think…especially since all links to the 9/11 terrorists took place while the former Mr. Hindrichs was in high school in Colorado. Everything I’ve read about this event suggests it’s a lone suicide and nothing more. He _might_ have planned to take people with him, and either screwed up or changed his mind at the last minute – but that’s no different than, say, a disgruntled employee who walks into his office and starts shooting people randomly before turning the gun on himself. We Americans seem so complacent about gun-related deaths, but anything to do with bombs freaks us the hell out. ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417/38 "2005-10-06T01:36:54Z")
According to the news broadcast this evening, the backpack that was blown up did not contain a bomb but bomb materials, Hinrichs had spent time at the same mosque that Moussaoui attended, he attempted to gain entry to the stadium, and he had a ticket to Algeria for a future date and the name on the ticket links back to his roommate. Very interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Jojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecd19e/32.png) [@Jojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jojo)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417/39 "2005-10-06T04:12:53Z")
The lack of news is bizarre. A suicide bomber blows himself up outside a football stadium and four whole days later a search on BBC news for “Joel Henry Hinrichs” produces [no results:](http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?scope=newsukfs&tab=news&q=joel+henry+hinrichs&go.x=20&go.y=16) > [@](#): > > There are no pages about “joel henry hinrichs” from BBC News . Huh? ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417/40 "2005-10-07T06:07:55Z")
> [@liirogue](#): > > Hinrichs had spent time at the same mosque that Moussaoui attended, he attempted to gain entry to the stadium, and he had a ticket to Algeria for a future date and the name on the ticket links back to his roommate. Why did he have a plane ticket if he was going to blow himself up?? Something doesn’t make sense here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombing-at-ou-ksu-football-game-in-norman-ok/324417.md?page=3)