Former employee arrested in connection to Northeastern University bomb scare
Officials have arrested a former Northeastern University employee in connection with a bomb scare at a virtual reality lab on campus last month, NPR reports. Authorities say the employee filed a false claim when reporting the alleged incident.
On Sept. 13, Boston Police and FBI bomb squads responded to calls that a suspicious package had exploded in one of the labs on Northeastern campus. Jason Duhaime, then-director of the university's Immersive Media Lab, had made the 911 call, NPR reports.
Duhaime told authorities he had opened a plastic case that had been mailed to the lab and was injured by flying debris when the case then exploded. He also claimed to have found a letter criticizing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg and condemning virtual reality developers. But investigators have no said there were no signs of an explosion, and that they discovered a copy of the letter on Duhaime's computer, per NPR.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Throughout the course of the investigation, we believe [Duhaime] repeatedly lied to us about what happened inside the lab, faked his injuries, and wrote a rambling letter directed at the lab threatening more violence," Joseph Bonavolanta, the FBI special agent overseeing the case, said Tuesday, per CNN.
Duhaime is no longer employed by Northeastern, per a Tuesday statement from the university.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Theara Coleman has worked as a staff writer at The Week since September 2022. She frequently writes about technology, education, literature and general news. She was previously a contributing writer and assistant editor at Honeysuckle Magazine, where she covered racial politics and cannabis industry news.
-
Dinosaurs were thriving before asteroid, study findsSpeed Read The dinosaurs would not have gone extinct if not for the asteroid
-
Trump pardons crypto titan who enriched familySpeed Read Binance founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to enabling money laundering while CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange
-
FBI nabs dozens in alleged NBA gambling ringSpeed Read Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier are among 34 people indicted in connection with federal gambling investigations
-
Trump pardons crypto titan who enriched familySpeed Read Binance founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to enabling money laundering while CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange
-
Thieves nab French crown jewels from LouvreSpeed Read A gang of thieves stole 19th century royal jewels from the Paris museum’s Galerie d’Apollon
-
Arsonist who attacked Shapiro gets 25-50 yearsSpeed Read Cody Balmer broke into the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion and tried to burn it down
-
Man charged over LA’s deadly Palisades Firespeed read 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht has been arrested in connection with the fire that killed 12 people
-
4 dead in shooting, arson attack in Michigan churchSpeed Read A gunman drove a pickup truck into a Mormon church where he shot at congregants and then set the building on fire
-
2 kids killed in shooting at Catholic school massSpeed Read 17 others were wounded during a morning mass at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis
-
Australian woman found guilty of mushroom murdersspeed read Erin Patterson murdered three of her ex-husband's relatives by serving them toxic death cap mushrooms
-
Combs convicted on 2 of 5 charges, denied bailSpeed Read Sean 'Diddy' Combs was acquitted of the more serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking
