Liberty Student
Arrested on Bomb Charges
By AP from the
NYTimes on the Web, May 23, 2007
LYNCHBURG, Va. -- A Liberty
University student who told a family member he had made bombs and planned to
attend the funeral of the Rev. Jerry Falwell was apparently upset about an
anti-gay fringe group that protested at the funeral, authorities said.
Officials were still trying to figure out what Mark David Uhl planned to do with
the bombs. Police do not believe he intended to disrupt the funeral
Tuesday or harm the Falwell family, Campbell County Sheriff Terry Gaddy said.
Uhl, 19, was being held without bond in the Campbell County Adult Detention
Center on charges of manufacturing an explosive device. It was not known
if he had a lawyer, and messages seeking comment left at numbers believed to
belong to his family were not returned.
Uhl, of Amissville, was arrested Monday night after a family member contacted
authorities, who found homemade bombs in the trunk of Uhl's car, Major Steve
Hutcherson said.
Gaddy described the five bombs as ''sort of like napalm'' and about the size of
soda cans.
''We do not believe the Falwells were ever in any danger,'' he said.
The funeral proceeded at Thomas Road Baptist Church without incident. More
than 10,000 people attended the service on the campus of the evangelical
university, which Falwell founded.
Investigators determined that Uhl had problems with a group that protested at
the funeral, Gaddy said. The Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church sent
about a dozen members to protest across the street from the funeral, claiming
Falwell was a friend to gays. The group also has picketed soldiers'
burials, claiming the deaths are God's punishment for a nation that supports
homosexuality.
Falwell frequently spoke against homosexuality, and gay rights advocates have
consistently opposed him. A group of Liberty University students staged a
counterprotest; it wasn't clear whether Uhl was involved.
Jesse Benson, 19, of Zanesville, Ohio, said he lived with Uhl this year and that
both shared the view that the Westboro group is a ''sorry, disgraceful bunch of
people,'' but that he was certain Uhl would never have done anything to harm
them.
''He had a very, very deep respect for Jerry Falwell, as do I,'' Benson said in
a telephone interview. ''Jerry Falwell would not have approved him harming
anybody for any reason. Out of respect for Jerry Falwell, he never would
have done anything.''
It wasn't clear whether Uhl knew the group planned to go to the campus, but the
group had listed the funeral as an upcoming event published on its Web site.
Benson said Uhl was in Liberty's Army ROTC program and was studying to become an
Army chaplain. Gaddy said investigators in Fauquier County were
interviewing several people who had been in an ROTC program with Uhl in high
school and may have been involved in making the bombs. One is now in the
Army, he said.
The sheriff said Campbell County authorities informed the Falwell family and
Liberty security personnel of the arrest Monday night, and gave security
personnel photos of other possible suspects in case any of them showed up at the
funeral.
Falwell, 73, died a week ago after collapsing in his office at the university.
His physician said Falwell had a heart condition and presumably died of a heart
rhythm abnormality.
More than 33,000 people had viewed his body over four days as it lay in repose.
A private burial was planned on the grounds of Liberty University near a former
mansion where Falwell's office was located.
|
