3 charged in bomb try at WilliamsBy Joe Dwinell
Senior Executive City Editor/ Web
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=195910
Saturday, April 21, 2007 - Updated: 01:04 PM EST
Three freshmen at Williams College out to shock the school face felony charges for reportedly attempting to detonate a homemade bomb on campus less than a day before the massacre at Virginia Tech.
A dean at the prestigious western Massachusetts college alerted parents yesterday in an e-mail lamenting the bomb scare. Police said if the explosive device had worked early Sunday, the campus would have been rocked.
“At this particularly sensitive time, I thought I’d take the risk of over-reporting,” Dean Nancy Roseman wrote in a stern e-mail obtained by the Herald.
“We all long for the time when such things don’t jangle our nerves quite so much,” she added in the missive sent home to parents.
Williamstown police Sgt. Scott McGowen told the Herald the three 19-year-old males each face charges of possession of an infernal machine - a felony - and disorderly conduct. The names of the three students will not be made public until Monday, McGowen added.
Police were called at 12:42 a.m. Sunday to a practice field at the bucolic campus, where they spotted the explosive device, McGowen said.
“They failed to detonate it, thankfully,” McGowen said, adding that if the bomb had gone off it would have resulted in a loud explosion but probably no injuries.
An investigation assisted by state police and FBI led to the charges against the three freshmen, who face “sanctions” from the college, the dean said.